Warm Embers
by RedRosesandMarigolds
Summary: Part 1 of the Warm Embers Series. After the end of the war, the world has changed, and continues to change. Zuko has to keep on top of his workload, not letting his relationship with Mai go to ground, and as the years pass, he and the rest of the gang move on with their lives, their stories entwining and separating in some dance of fate.
1. The End of Peace

**Hi, everyone. It's been a while. I had GCSEs (ginormous whopper exams that determine how easy it'll be for me to get a job in the future, do you have those in America?) and it took me a while to get back into writing. I'm actually going to try and stick with this one, I have an insane amount of unpublished first chapters floating around. This is an idea that started off as semi-crack (I had given up on my Biology exam and was bored) and actually turned into something pretty plausible. For those who like their fluff with a side of adventure, you're in the right place. So, sit back and enjoy the** ** _Warm Embers_** **saga (here's to hoping). I don't own Avatar. Oh, and this completely ignores the comics and Legend of Korra. It ignores the comics because I am a Maiko shipper and I hate them, and LoK because, although I enjoyed it immensely, it's more fun to make it up yourself, don't you think?**

* * *

The first attempt on Zuko's life came right the heck out of nowhere.

It was merely a month into the new Fire Lord's reign, and there were still whispers of discontent. The indoctrination programme in the schools had been stopped abruptly - a replacement was still being planned - but there was no way of un-indoctrinating those who had already left, and still most of the population hated the fact that the useless, weakling, banished prince had come back to take over the country with his stupid, radical ideas, and pulled the plug on their Great March of Civilisation. Pray tell, dear people: how exactly were the Earth Kingdom and Water Tribes supposed to be enlightened if there were no soldiers or tanks marching through their streets in an impressive display of the power they were missing out on? How was the Fire Nation supposed to prove its status as the only worthy country if reparations were being paid out daily to the other leading powers and the Fire Lord was demonstrating the nation's "penance"? How were their children supposed to learn pride, in themselves and in their country, if they were constantly told that they were equal to all the other vermin in the world? The thoughts were rife throughout the kingdom, but the whisperers, not used to the new free speech laws, kept them behind closed doors, under hands, from person to person rather than group to group, no-one trusting a stranger, so that plain-clothes guards sent out to gauge the temperature on the streets found nothing, and came back with reports of a people that, though grudging, were growing contentedly accustomed to the new régime. Thus, the opinion at the palace was that Zuko was doing well, and they had no real reason to worry.

Until one impressionable young man broke down the door to the Fire Lord's chamber, where the young ruler - still a boy, really - slept peacefully, arms wrapped tightly around his girlfriend.

It was Mai who woke first. She had her back to the door, but she rolled over with consummate grace and leapt out of bed. She did not sleep with knives on her body, but it took her a mere second to grab the knife belt from her bedside table and launch a round at the assassin, who gave one wild, desperate lunge out of the way, and then managed to stagger to his feet. Pulling his hidden blade from its sheath in his cloak, he decided to abandon the girl and just go for the Fire Lord. He made another wild dive towards the bed, only to be met with a hard foot impacting his head and sending him flying into the wall with a bang that finally jolted the groggy Fire Lord to full awareness.

Hiroshi, the assassin, suddenly found himself dodging a furious volley of fireballs. One here, one there, one nearly impacting his left shoulder, one narrowly missing his right ear. And still the knives came from the girl; now if only he could get near enough without dying horribly. He lunged for the Fire Lord, only to find the girl blocking his path. Fine then, cut her down, then go for her boyfriend - she was too much of a threat. He lunged at her, knife outstretched, but the Fire Lord had caught his movement and sent a wave of fire towards his head, and he had to duck again, mission aborted.

He tried to go at her from a different angle, but she was there waiting for him, all knives and deadly coldness. She grabbed his outstretched arm and knocked the knife from his grasp, sending it flying into the wall. Without his weapon, Hiroshi wavered. He could duck out now, run for the hills and come back another night, but then he thought about the gentleman who had paid him up – he expected to put his plan into action _tonight_ , and that wouldn't happen with the current Fire Lord still alive and well.

Hiroshi's next idea was to wrestle the girl into submission. He took in her build – tall and lanky, not much muscle at all – and decided it was doable. He lunged for her, dodging the furious volley of knives that came his way, and grabbed her skinny arms. He did not expect to meet with much resistance, but she was surprisingly strong – how old was she anyway? She couldn't be older than twenty, and at close quarters, Hiroshi decided that she didn't even look more than sixteen. He reached past her arm and grabbed her waist, struggling to find purchase in the smooth silk of her nightgown – while he could barely afford wool to clothe his Mamma and younger siblings! – but the Fire Lord grabbed his own waist and tried to prise the assassin from his girlfriend.

Hiroshi was swiftly losing heart, but he managed to hold on to the girl as the younger but evidently stronger boy pulled him this way and that. After a while, Hiroshi realised that the Fire Lord was holding back, for fear of hurting his girlfriend. Using this to his advantage, Hiroshi managed to pull the girl towards him, her bare feet sliding easily on the polished wooden floor, and give a hefty kick to her unprotected stomach, sending her flying with a startled cry. She hit the wardrobe, a hulking monster carved with red-stained dragons, and crumpled to the floor, clutching her abdomen.

Hiroshi celebrated – _finally_ out of the way – but only when he heard the bellow of rage behind him did he realise that he had let his guard down, and it had cost him the few precious seconds it took to spin around and block the fireball thrown at his head by his remaining opponent. He was forced to duck it instead, and he felt the searing heat on his face.

That was the final straw. Hiroshi gave the Fire Lord the strongest shove he could, ducked under his arm in the split-second it took him to regain his balance, and ran for the door. He kept going, past the guards he had drugged – for he was better at sneaking than at fighting – down the corridor towards the stairs that separated the floor given over completely to the Fire Lord's chambers from the rest of the palace (which was empty apart from those servants who lived in the palace) and had almost got there before he ran smack into two guards who blossomed at the top of the stairs seemingly from nowhere, in the perfect position to grab an arm each and, with a threatening "Where do you think _you're_ going?", tow him back to the Fire Lord's chambers, where they found the boy crouching beside the wardrobe, checking that his girlfriend remained mostly unharmed.

"We heard a commotion, my Lord." The two guards that held Hiroshi ducked their heads respectfully, and the six that had followed – who a terrified Hiroshi had been staring in the face for what seemed like forever – performed the proper Fire Nation bow. Hiroshi thought that it would probably be difficult to do a full bow, noses to the floor, in their armour. "We have the assassin," the guard who had spoken added unnecessarily.

"Yes." Zuko stood up, trying to feel dignified with his hair a shaggy mess and wearing nothing but pyjama trousers. He was also too tired to think of anything Fire-Lordly to say, so all he could come up with was, "I can see that."

"Shall we take him to the prison block, my Lord?" The guard performed another little bow, and Hiroshi felt himself slide along the floor.

"Well, yes," Zuko said without thinking. "Isn't that where criminals normally go?" He saw the guard's eyebrows shoot up, and he could practically _feel_ Mai rolling her eyes behind him. He finally recovered himself. "You can interrogate him in the morning. In the meantime, secure the palace. Make sure there isn't someone else ready to step in if this guy gets caught."

"Right away, sir." And Hiroshi was dragged away. He was still facing the opposite way to the guards holding him, and so he found himself staring into the Fire Lord's chamber as the owner of the room helped his girlfriend to her feet and pulled her into his arms. There was no trace of the fierce warrior who had fought so valiantly, only a relieved lover, happy in her boyfriend's safety, as she wrapped her arms around the Fire Lord's waist, a kind of tenderness as she tucked her dark head under his chin. Hiroshi felt wretched. He was no longer a bringer of justice, bravely risking his life to remove an oppressor and restore the justice and order of the Great March of Civilisation to the Fire Nation. He was a monster, come to murder a boy younger than him, further from his majority than Hiroshi himself, and break up this cosy couple, staining the room with her blood too if necessary. He had attacked and would have killed a lady. Mamma would be ashamed. And now he would never see her or his three younger siblings again.

"Agni, Mai, are you OK?" Left alone now, Zuko addressed his girlfriend. Mai raised her head from his chest and met his eyes, concern written softly in her own.

"I'm fine. Just a bit of a shock. How are you doing?"

"OK. Where did that come from? I thought the people were happy!"

"It only takes one guy to pay off an assassin, Zuko," Mai reminded him. "Come on. Let's get some sleep. You've got a lot to do tomorrow." She led him back to the bed and pulled him under the sheets. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight, Mai. I'm glad you're safe." Zuko kissed his girlfriend, then pulled her back against him. It wasn't long before he heard her breathing slow, but hours later, one hand rhythmically stroking her soft ebony hair, he watched the sun tint the black sky golden.

* * *

Ty Lee loved mornings on Kyoshi Island. Summer was slowly giving way to Autumn, and the clear, crisp morning breeze floated through the window as she threw open the shutters, propping them open with the wooden poles intended for that purpose, causing the warrior in the other bed, Niu, a pleasant-faced girl of fifteen, to moan groggily and rub her eyes.

"Ty…a couple more minutes, please."

Ty Lee checked the candle that had been kept burning all night, saw that it was a quarter past seven, and tutted. The candles were designed to be lit at seven in the morning, and burned steadily for twenty-four hours. There was, however, an extra hour allowed in case one did not wake up in time. She fetched a new candle and cut off a quarter-hour's worth of wax before lighting this new one. "Come on! Breakfast is in fifteen minutes, and then training – it'll be _three hours_ before you can get something to eat!" The older girl's attitude to mornings reminded her a lot of Mai, and she felt a brief pang of homesickness before she shrugged on her robe and went outside to fill the little basin with water so that she and her room-mate could wash.

It was such a simple life, so _provincial_ , so different from both the "anything goes" atmosphere of the circus and the strictness of the Fire Nation nobility. Ty Lee was as flexible with life as she was with her body, and she had settled in well among her _super_ new friends, but there were times when she missed the old way. Mai was the one she missed the most, and part of her wished that she could have persuaded her oldest friend to join the Kyoshi Warriors, too, although she knew that that was unrealistic. Mai had not taken to the warriors, and she disliked the Earth Kingdom. Besides, Ty Lee would not begrudge the girl her new-found happiness with Zuko, so the weekly letters from Zuko (addressed not only to her, but to Sokka and Suki as well), with Mai's occasional input, had to suffice.

Azula was a greyer area. The other warriors said that Azula had been evil, and after what had happened at the Boiling Rock, she was going to believe them, and of course it was liberating not being under Azula's thumb any more, but sometimes, Suki would give an instruction, sure and confident, but kind and non-threatening, and Ty Lee would feel a strange tightening in her chest as she rushed to follow it – almost as if she missed the girl. Her feelings towards Azula were complicated, and Ty Lee had never been very good at identifying her emotions or thoughts – much easier to just stick on a big grin and feel happy. Her betrayal of Azula at the Boiling Rock had been a necessary action to save Mai, and not intended to mean that she no longer liked the princess. Sometimes, Azula had done something, or said something, that made Ty Lee twist up inside, not unpleasantly, and feel a little confused…

Ty Lee realised that she was wool-gathering, and that her basin was overflowing. She carried it back to her room, where Niu, fully awake now, waited for her. It had been Niu who had, in that miserable, dank prison near the palace, noticed Ty Lee's loneliness, and prompted her fellow warriors to offer her company. Yes. That was better. Live in the now. Azula was the past.

Ty Lee enjoyed training immensely. It was the third hour of training that she enjoyed the most. This was the hour given over to chi-blocking lessons, the time when Suki would step aside and let Ty Lee take the lead. It was nice to feel an expert for once, not being put down and told that she was stupid. In fact, Ty Lee could do something that these girls couldn't! That just made her day so much brighter, almost as if there were _two_ Suns in the sky! And they were making such progress, too!

But, inevitably, her daily hour to shine came to an end and the other seven warriors helped each other to their feet, rubbing sore limbs and talking about cups of tea. As they headed towards the door, it opened, as it did every day, to reveal a brown-skinned boy in blue. The warriors all crowded around Sokka, chatting happily, grinning as he greeted each of them in turn and giggling as he addressed Ai as Xue (he was still learning to recognise them all with the face paint). It wasn't long before Suki pushed through the group to kiss and be kissed by her boyfriend. Ty Lee grinned. They really were a cute couple, and at times like this they reminded her of Mai and Zuko. It was these thoughts that helped her accept that Sokka would never consider a relationship with her, and now that he was a person in her life as opposed to a concept, she could feel her crush on him, never much more than an appreciation of his looks, fading more and more each day.

"How are you doing, Ty Lee?" he asked her, one arm still around Suki, and she grinned and sat down with the couple for a proper chat.

"I'm doing great!" she beamed. "The warriors are so super-amazing!"

"That's good to know," Suki replied with a smile, and as they settled down for a long, thorough confab, Ty Lee couldn't help but feel that she had found her _true_ calling.

* * *

"I brought you breakfast."

Aang brought his early-morning meditation session to an end as Katara approached him with a tray. It always helped clear his mind of the last dregs of sleep, shaking the vines' hold upon his consciousness and leaving him ready to face the day. It also helped him stay positive, and reflect on all the good things in his life: his friends, his home at the (eerily quiet) Southern Air Temple, the generous amount of fan-mail he received, and of course, the gem of the collection, his month-old relationship with Katara. She was a blessing in his life, contrary to many of the monks' teachings about human attachment, but none the less sweet for it. Still too young to be thinking about his hormones, and with a girl too patient and understanding to rush him, his relationship with Katara was based on fun and games, kindness and empathy, a gentle hand always there to guide him and soothe him when he felt lost.

"Thanks, Katara. Good morning."

"Morning, Aang. The post is here – two letters and something that looks like it's from that guy in Ba Sing Se we saw a couple weeks ago." Katara fished around in her tunic and procured the said letters. After the war, it had dawned on Aang that, with the Fire Nation working hard to re-establish peaceful communications with the other nations, he had no idea what "keeping balance" might entail. After speaking to many of his past lives, he had come to the conclusion that each Avatar had their own methods, depending on what suited the time best, and so he offered himself as a kind of charity worker, flitting about the globe, using the Southern Air Temple as his base of operations, answering pleas for help and visiting war-torn locations – none too large or too remote – to help them rebuild and adjust.

Opening the letters, he found one from a small village in the Earth Kingdom, and the other from a larger town in the outermost reaches of the Fire Nation. Both wanted to settle disputes, and the Fire Nation letter had a complaint about the reparations. Aang frowned as he bit into a peach. Although he did his best to keep smiling, it was truly a crushing amount of work, and he realised that neither piece of business could be solved via letter. "I'll get Appa's saddle – we need to head out to the Earth Kingdom." he sighed. Katara gave him an understanding, encouraging smile, and he in turn smiled back, a weaker smile than his usual grin, but still one that conveyed gratitude and love. Katara leaned over and placed a kiss on his cheek, then another on his lips. He put his arms around her, and she did likewise, tightening their embrace. At length, they broke apart, and Aang, his enthusiasm restored, grinned properly. "Good morning, Katara!"

His girlfriend watched him air-scooter away.

* * *

"Good morning, Akemi. Looking forward to meeting your new patient?" Doctor Fukui, Head Doctor of the Kitasaki Mental Facility not far from the Capital, looked up from his work – his office being located near the staff entrance, with the door often open – and greeted one of his hardest workers. She was one of the only doctors he could trust with perhaps their most trying patient yet, and with her personality, he was sure that the two would mould together beautifully in time.

"Of course, Doctor," Akemi beamed at him. "I'm sure she'll turn out fine eventually. After all, it's so great for our hospital to have the _Fire Lord_ himself trust us with the care of his own sister!"

"Always glad of the enthusiasm, Akemi." Doctor Fukui checked the time. "I'll take you along to meet her now. She's usually awake by now – practising her Firebending, the poor thing."

He led her along a variety of corridors through the circular tower, to one of the rooms where a newer patient resided. As predicted, they could hear the sounds of Firebending. Fukui knocked on the door.

"Could we come in, please, Azula?"

There was just enough of a pause to convey Azula's contempt, then the door opened a fraction of an inch. It had taken Azula a while to realise that, however long she waited, no-one was going to open the door for her. Neither were they going to go away. Fukui pushed the door open further and entered, gesturing for Akemi to follow.

They stood in a small room, comfortably furnished but with no hint of cosiness. It was customary for patients to decorate their rooms – Fukui was always very insistent that these were not cells – by buying or painting pictures, but Azula had always insisted that the décor must have been this way for thousands of years, and must not be trifled with. The walls were painted white, and the curved one was dominated by a window looking out onto a large, beautifully-kept garden. There was a small desk, well-stocked with paper, ink, and brushes, complete with chair, and the bed was made with soft red sheets – not the silk and ostrich-swan down that Azula was used to, but still a comfortable night's sleep. There was a little cupboard, a dressing-table, and lastly, a further two chairs for visiting, and in one of these sat a teenage girl. Her messy black hair was pulled up into a high ponytail, the shorn bits of hair that had once framed her face gone, cut off upon arrival. Her eyes glinted, her mouth, free of lip-paint, pulled up into a lopsided smirk only too familiar to those used to working with mental patients, her head tilted to one side. She wore exactly the same uniform as everybody else, a pink and red tunic and loose trousers, but there was an added royalty to the way she sat, the cross of her legs and the way her bare arms rested on the arms of the chair. She took Akemi in with a haughtiness that belied her age, before she spoke, her voice with a confidence that blatantly ignored her situation.

"You must be the new psychiatrist. Bow, both of you. Noses to the floor." She turned to Akemi once more. "In case you haven't been told, I'm the Fire Lord. Fire Lord Azula." She gave a high pitched giggle that sent shivers down Akemi's spine.

"We're not going to bow to you, Azula." Fukui's voice was calm and collected. He was quite used to the strange demands of patients – and this one, out of all the ones he'd heard this week – "No, really. You _must_ bring some fire flakes for my elephant-rabbit. He's terribly unhappy sitting there on top of the cupboard." – this one was quite the most sane, considering what she'd had snatched from her grasp at the last moment. "I heard you Firebending."

Azula sighed and shook her head. It was quite clear to Akemi that she thought Fukui was stupid beyond measure.

"I'm going to leave you with Akemi now," Fukui told the girl gently. "I have other patients to attend to. Akemi, you know what to do. If you need me, just shout."

"Thanks, Doctor." Left alone with Azula, Akemi turned to the young girl. "So…how are you doing, Azula?"

"You peasants really _are_ stupid. I'm doing terribly, but I'm pushing through. We royals have to be made from sterner stuff than the usual riff-raff, and, as the Fire Lord, I have to be the strongest of all." Azula rose from the chair, walking over to her new psychiatrist and attempting to stare her down. This was not a successful attempt as Akemi was a head taller.

"So you practice your Firebending every day?"

Azula rolled her eyes. "Of course. The Fire Lord's bending has to be the strongest in the nation. Besides," she leaned forwards conspiratorially, "I have to be ready for when _they_ come for me."

"Who are _they_ , Azula?"

Azula giggled, but then her face grew dark. "Why my brother, the Avatar, that Waterbending peasant, my father and mother, and Mai and Ty Lee." She waved a hand airily. "They hate me. They're coming for me."

"Azula." Akemi put her hands firmly on Azula's shoulders. "No-one's coming for you. We're all here to help. We want to talk to you." Something in Azula's demeanour made her heart wrench. The poor girl had been abused to the point of snapping. That was what made Akemi want to work for people with mental problems. Suddenly, she wanted, more than anything, to give Azula the bright future every girl deserved.

"Get your hands off the Fire Lord!" Azula's eyes flared and blue flames sparked at her fingertips. "GUARDS!" No guards came. "No matter." Azula seemed to have forgotten her request at once as Akemi let her go. "I have the power to have them all put to death anyway. Just throw them against a wall and open fire – and _then_ they'll regret doubting my power. Just you wait, Ami or whatever your name is. Soon enough, the whole _world_ will know the power of Fire Lord Azula!"

Her insane cackling filled the room, the fire and torches flared blue, and she clutched the desk for support. Akemi trembled. No longer did she see a vulnerable, scared little girl. Now, she saw a power-crazed madwoman who would stop at nothing to make her twisted little delusions a reality.

* * *

"Dinner. Now."

Zuko looked up and grinned when he heard his girlfriend's familiar rasp. "Mai!"

"Hey. You look like you could use a break." Mai came fully into the room and pulled Zuko's chair out from under his desk. He helped her scoot the chair back and she sat on his lap, straddling him, pulling his topknot out and running calloused fingers through his soft, downy hair. Zuko felt relaxed at once, putting his hands on her waist then wrapping his arms around her as Mai draped her own around his neck, leaning down for a kiss, soft and tender.

"Thanks, Mai." Zuko smiled as soon as they broke apart. "You always know how to make me feel better. He gestured behind her to all the papers littering his desk. "There's so much work – I don't know where to start sometimes. I've been up to my eyeballs all day."

Mai kissed him again and Zuko savoured it, her mouth soft and warm against his. They enjoyed a casual intimacy, love and sex inexorably entwined, knowing now that they had the luxury of all the time in the world, for they were the victors, and no-one could order them away from each other again.

"Come on. Let's get some food. It'll get cold and go lumpy." Mai got up and tugged her boyfriend with her, Zuko enjoying the familiar feel of her hand, soft skin, slender fingers peppered with callouses and tiny scars, the tough leather of her hand protectors. Zuko loved that. No-one else felt it when they took their beloved's hand.

They went together to the smallest dining room, where a table was set for two, food quietly steaming away its heat on ornate red platters. Despite the supply of biscuits and fire gummies that only Mai knew filled one desk drawer, Zuko was hungry, and the pork-chicken and steamed noodles looked like heaven. The two knelt on cushions on opposite sides of the table and began to eat.

The meal passed in silence for a few minutes, before Mai asked, "So…what were you working on?"

Zuko sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Some reports of conflicts in the colonies, bills – _fucking_ bills – some peace treaty suggestions, and other crap like that. Oh, and a report on that guy who tried to do us in last night."

"Oh." Mai took out one of her favourite blades and spun it casually. "Him. Anything?"

"He squealed like a stuck piglet-lamb, but he never saw any faces. So basically I had to read this long report telling me absolutely fucking nothing."

Mai sighed, seeing the distress in her boyfriend's eyes, and reached for his hand. "You'll get used to the workload, Zuko. And you know I'm here to help if you ever need it." She smiled encouragingly, her wide lips twitching upwards. Zuko grinned back, squeezing her fingers in thanks.

"You're incredible, Mai. Are you staying over tonight?"

"Yes. My family are coming back in a couple of days, and I want to make the most of my time alone with you." She flashed him a suggestive smirk and Zuko felt his face heat up as he grinned back. Mai really seemed to have thrown caution to the wind. He wasn't entirely sure what prison had done to her, but the girl who sat opposite him was not the girl he had lain on the sofa with and kissed, prior to his joining Aang. She was rougher, somehow, more lewd with fewer inhibitions. He wouldn't put it past this new Mai to shed her clothing right then and there and encourage him to take her over the table. He grinned even more broadly at the thought, squeezed her hand again, and gulped the heat down. "What are you going to do when they do return?"

"Spend as much time over here as I can get away with. I don't really care who knows I'm fucking you." Mai smiled, and dug into her meat in earnest. "Besides, you need me. And I care about you."

Zuko smiled back at her, taking in every stunning detail of her beauty. He had long since worked out what "care about" was a euphemism for, and the thought made warmth begin in the depths of his heart and spread outwards, heating all the way to the tips of his fingers and toes. When he looked up, he saw amusement dancing on his girlfriend's features.

"Quit staring and eat your Agni-damned noodles. I want seconds and I'm not leaving any for you, so hurry up and take what you want before I eat it all."

Zuko began to pile noodles into his mouth, allowing himself to dwell on her words, on her complete lack of reverence for him. He loved having someone so close, someone who wasn't afraid to speak her mind to him – another thing he had noticed had changed – someone who protected and cared for him. He in turn tried to care for her, remembering his promises at the Boiling Rock, alone in that cell, of a brighter world for her and for the child they would have one day, an only, free from siblings to compete with and be ignored in favour of. He let his thoughts drift from his girlfriend to the assassin, there to throw a wrench in his plans. Thank Agni Mai had been there. The full implications of the attack disquieted him. There were discontents in the Fire Nation. How many wanted him gone? How many times would he and Mai have to fight for their lives? It marked, for sure, the ending of peace and the Fire Lord's state of blissful innocence. He looked up once more, and saw Mai smirking at him, once more.

"Staring _again_! That does it – I'm taking all the pork-chicken. Enjoy your plain noodles, _Fire Lord_."

 **So, yeah, nice gentle opening. A bit more will happen in the next update. Do let me know, however, if I do too much telling instead of showing. So, leave a review, leave a favourite, leave a fruit tart, and see you in the next chapter.**


	2. Love and Family

**Hi all. Welcome to my second chapter, and thanks to you, frostystuffs, Gul Sen Go, and Bleach7Deadlysins, for favouriting, and to you, Private Fire, for reviewing. As a matter of fact, I have bought a box-set of all three seasons, so I now officially own Avatar! …Wait, what? What do you mean, that doesn't count? (Have I used that joke before?)**

* * *

Two days later, a letter wound up on Zuko's desk. It was a rather short letter (at least compared to the novels he usually received) and it stated that the City of Omashu had been officially handed back to King Bumi, the proper papers all written and signed and all governing affairs neatly sorted, and the former governor and his wife and son were now on their way home.

His response to this was to head upstairs, back to his bedroom, to where the former governor's daughter still lay tucked under the sheets, a study in black and white, only the dull grey-gold of her eyes, as they opened at his touch, to break the pattern.

"Hey," was her sleepy response to his hand on her shoulder. She sat up, her hair covering her like a cape, brushing her fringe out of her eyes and shaking her head groggily. "Urgh. What time is it?"

Zuko checked the candle. "Nearly half past nine."

"Urgh," she said again, lying back down and pulling the covers over herself. She opened her eyes, however, as a thought occurred to her. "Any reason for coming up here?"

"Apart from coming to see my lovely girlfriend? Yeah, as a matter of fact. Omashu's been handed back. So your dad should be home soon."

Mai sat up again and sighed, her breath tumbling out like a waterfall. "My family. Whoopee. You can see them again, meet my little brother."

"You know you can always move in permanently." Zuko sat down on the bed and kissed his girlfriend, deep and tender, one arm wrapping around her waist as the other smoothed her tousled hair. "My offer still stands."

"Good to know. I think I'll need it." She was glad of his pronouncement. Part of her had worried that he would withdraw the proposal, made safely ensconced in her embrace before his coronation, that he would think twice once the passion, their muted kind of passion, of their reunion had faded away. She heaved another of her own special sighs, beautifully expiring, somehow, in her own unique way, making a slow, lifelong death look like an art form; eventually hauling herself out of bed, an expanse of soft white skin exposed and messy from the previous night's activities, and Zuko blinked and focused on the dragons coiling around the edge of the rug, to quell the temptation to repeat such activities.

Mai headed off to bathe, taking full advantage of the bathroom designated to the Fire Lord, the mid-morning light splashing off pink and white marble, warmth streaming in through the window. She stretched, yawning, and went to fill the bathtub from a large water tank somewhere in the ceiling (the Fire Nation having developed a crude kind of plumbing), adding a generous amount of rose-scented bath-salts from a jar.

She took a long time over her bath, as she so often did, letting the hot water soak into her muscles and relax her, perpetuating the illusion that she could go back to sleep, allowing her thoughts to drift. She habitually thought about light, pleasant things in this time – Zuko, the book she was currently reading (which would make most people keel over from shock and disgust), her training – but today, her thoughts turned to her family. Her relationship with her mother had never been a good one, and she was quite sure that her father had forgotten her name for a while after her brother was born. Tom-Tom (or Tomohiro, as Mai stubbornly called him) was a curse in himself, always toddling into her room as she was trying to sit quietly, reading, or even just thinking about Zuko, something she had done daily as a matter of routine during his banishment, giggling that nauseating giggle, making her sit and listen either to his half-distinguishable ramblings or to the cooing of her mother's friends as they remarked once more what a perfect little boy he was (and how he quite made up for that…ahem… _little blip_ that was his older sister). Mai sighed and closed her eyes, trying to pinpoint what else it was that was bothering her so much.

Eventually, she found it. _Freedom_. It was the loss of her freedom. Once she had grown accustomed to the Boiling Rock, the dank cell, the daily clean-up duty on the gondola launch platform, supervised by guards who taunted her regularly about her fall from grace and her love for the traitor prince, the daily interrogations as to why she did what she did and whether or not she was plotting with the prince, and the crap food, she had begun to feel a great sense of _freedom_. She had hit the lowest of the low. There were no behavioural standards in prison. She had deserted Azula, and the princess would have no orders for her any more. She had already angered her mother, and so what would be a little more scandalous behaviour behind closed doors? She supposed that it had simply been building on the freedom she had already gained, sent home with Azula and Zuko with her parents still in Omashu, with only a short note telling her to remember her station and behave herself to guide her. Her wide lips curved up in a smile as she remembered how a slip of her hand had so _tragically_ knocked the note into the fire, smirking at Zuko as she led him to her room, snuggling up with him on her favourite sofa. Merely hours later, they had been lying together in her bed, arms around each other, Zuko out like a light but she taking longer to drop off, naked and sweating and so, _so_ happy. Mai's smile grew even wider as she replayed their first time over in her head, awkward and fumbling, but all the more sweet and intimate for it.

She sighed deeply (for when had she ever sighed any other way?) as she thought of her mother watching her like an eagle-hawk as she darted to and from the palace, constantly having to check her hair for tell-tale tangles, making sure the smell of…certain things…didn't cling to her. Perhaps she should invest in some perfume. She recalled the previous night, her taking of Zuko's arm as they got ready for bed and her whispered suggestion that they spend some time together before going to sleep. She wondered how she was going to manage that in the future. She didn't want to have to give up the physical nature of her relationship, since they were both so bad with their words – it was one of Mai's greatest regrets that every time she tried to tell her long-time boyfriend that she _loved_ him, something inside her froze, and she wound up saying something else instead, something stupid: that she cared about him, that she actually kind of liked him, that she _didn't hate him_ , and yet she had told Azula without a flinch. So instead she had tried to show him, mostly through touch, through kissing, through snuggling on the sofa and holding him in her arms, and yes, through sex. Propelled by hormones and the exhilaration of complete solitude, after their return from Ember Island, their relationship had been one long haze of sensation and sleep alternately, one touch or kiss in the right place enough to set them going again, and to this sole activity, the one thing her parents feared when they had sent her home alone, three weeks had been lost. The relationship was her sustenance, what made her dreary life worth living, the thing that made her look forward to the next day and prevent her from turning into the lifeless doll her parents wanted, empty eyes and empty soul, not showing any emotion but not feeling any either, going under and being swallowed by a morass of pointlessness. His banishment had been the worst three years of her young life, and she was desperate not to lose him again, not to have to part with the warmth his embrace filled her with, radiating through her from every point of contact. She was determined to find a way to defy her mother and continue with her relationship as she wanted it.

She came out of her reverie when she realised that her bathwater was freezing cold. She needed a Firebender. Perhaps she could persuade Zuko to get into the bath with her some time. She smirked again as she pictured him slick with scented bathwater as she climbed out and wrapped herself up in a fluffy white and gold towel. Time to get in some morning training – something that always helped clear her head, both of sleep and of stress – before the morning became the afternoon.

* * *

Niu snored. Ty Lee had discovered this on her first night with the warriors. She didn't mind. Her sister Sakurako had snored, and she had shared a room with her on a few holidays with her family. Besides, Niu always took a while to drop off and Ty Lee was the kind of person who always fell asleep the instant her head hit the pillow, so she rarely heard it anyway. But not tonight.

For tonight, it was raining. It wasn't that Ty Lee was especially bothered by rain. It was simply that it brought back memories. When she had travelled with Azula and Mai, there had been no bunks in their tank train, forcing them to sleep on the ground outside. Azula had had a one-man tent, and Mai and Ty Lee had slept under the stars. Ty Lee had adored looking up at all the beautiful constellations before she closed her eyes, but Mai beside her had been unable to ignore the constant discomfort of that ever-present rock in her shoulder (or sometimes it had been her hip). But what she remembered the most was the nights it had rained.

Ty Lee was always a girl for contact. Most people saw this in her constant hugging of anyone she knew even mildly well. The part of her that read auras and knew everything about everybody put this down to the way her parents had struggled to make time for all seven children (especially how, in the constant rushes both their lives were, they sometimes forgot who was who). But nevertheless, Ty Lee, ever-friendly, had a strange desire to put her arms around whoever was nearest, just to feel the warmth, of their skin and of their attention, nothing romantic and nothing sexual, but still weird enough for her to have to restrain herself whenever the urge struck. And this could be done in her waking hours, but as she slept, she had no control over her actions, and she had been woken many times by a highly indignant Mai, who had woken herself to find herself being pretty much spooned by a snoring Ty Lee (although the younger girl wondered if her anger was partly due to embarrassment, as the sleep-murmurings Ty Lee had caught from time to time before her friend had been jolted to full wakefulness seemed to indicate that, in the state halfway between reality and dreams, she had believed that the arms tight around her waist had belonged to Zuko – very embarrassing, Ty Lee thought, to be caught having romantic and possibly sexual dreams about the boy you were supposed to be chasing down). Ty Lee had always had the excuse of getting cold very easily, and Mai had always settled down again with a filthy look that warned her that that had better not happen the following night (although in fairness to the young acrobat, it did rarely happen two nights in a row). But when it rained, Mai had always been perfectly content to lie there and get wet (comforted, Ty Lee had always thought laughingly, by her dreams of a certain banished prince), whereas Ty Lee had sought the warmth and dry, and persuaded (by dint of not shutting up about it) Azula to let her share her tent. The lack of space had forced them together as much as Ty Lee's need for further warmth, and she had wound up wrapping her arms around Azula, snuggling against her, in a way that she was sure creeped the princess out slightly. But that didn't stop her opening the tent-flaps for her friend the next time it rained.

She definitely missed Azula, and now it hit her in the chest, a tight pain similar to the effort of not crying. She wasn't sure if that wasn't what it was, for crying would wake Niu, and then she would want to know what was wrong, and Ty Lee wasn't sure how any of the warriors would take the news. So she lay awake, unable to do anything, unable to sleep without something to wrap her arms around, and unable to stomach the indignity of buying a teddy to help her, for she was a warrior now, and Niu would know that it wasn't for her sister's new baby, and she might tell the others.

She got up, wrapping her robe about her, and went over to the little writing-desk in the corner of the room. She lit a candle, then checked back at Niu, the older girl still slept soundly, still snored.

 _Dear Azula,_ she wrote, then couldn't for the life of her think what to write next. In the end, she decided upon just that. _I don't know what to write, but I really wanted to send you a letter._ She decided that that sounded a bit too tearful, and so she took her candle over to the mirror and grinned at herself. It looked extremely put-on, and so she tried again, and again, and again, until she looked – and therefore felt – her usual self.

Heading back over to the desk, she sat down again and began to write in full flow: _Things are great here. I've made so many new friends here, and Suki is the nicest person ever. I love watching the sunrise turn the skies all pink, and I can see it outside my room! I share it with a girl called Niu and she's the same age as Mai, and she's so motherly and nice. That's Niu, of course, not Mai, I can't imagine Mai ever being motherly! She's really pretty, and her aura's a nice gold, with lots of pink, too._ After about three paragraphs detailing everything she liked about Kyoshi Island, she wrote _I hope things are going as super-wonderfully for you, too._ As she read over the last sentence, she stopped abruptly, her train of thought juddering to a halt.

Azula was in a _mental hospital_. Of _course_ things weren't going to be going as well for her! She was so insensitive! Without giving the ink time to dry, she scrumpled the paper up and buried her face in her hands. She would never be able to apologise to Azula and be friends again! The tears began to fall, and Ty Lee was too tired to stop them. It was only when a gentle hand rested on her shoulder that she realised the snoring had stopped.

"Hi, Niu," she whispered.

"Ty Lee," Niu's voice had taken the same soft tone as it had when they were in prison, when she had been alone and vulnerable and unsure as to whether or not Mai had already been executed, "What are you writing? What's wrong?"

Ty Lee froze. This was _exactly_ what she had been worried about! "It's…nothing. Nothing. Just writing to my sister Misaki."

"Is she ill?"

Ty Lee had never been one to think ahead, and failed to realise that that would give her a decent reason to be caught crying. "…No."

Niu's eyes flicked to the piece of paper scrunched up on the desk. "Then why are you crying?"

"No reason. I just…miss her, that's all!" Ty Lee tried to give Niu one of her usual beams, but the smile she managed was a shadow of its usual self. She knew it was an unconvincing argument anyway. She hadn't seen Misaki for nearly two years. Although, perhaps it was time for a visit.

"Come on, Ty Lee." Niu took her arm and led her to her bed, where she sat her down and pulled her into a sisterly hug. "I can't help you if you don't tell me how."

Snuggled against Niu, soothed by her tone and the older girl's motherly nature, Ty Lee's resolve, already weakened by her tiredness, broke. "I…I miss Azula."

When Ty Lee checked Niu's face, she saw that the older girl's mouth had formed a very thin line. "Right. OK. Do you know why?"

"I'm not sure, I just…do." Ty Lee replied. "I guess…I guess it might be because I was with her for so long. And I feel guilty, I guess."

"Because you betrayed her to save your friend?"

"Yeah. And now she's…she's… And it's all my fault!"

"Ty Lee!" Niu squeezed her tightly and rocked her back and forth. "It's not your fault. Azula used you. She burned too brightly, and eventually, she just…burned herself out. She manipulated you _and_ Mai, and she didn't show mercy to anyone else, either." Unconsciously, she took one hand from the younger warrior to touch a small scar on her arm, a relic of the fight that led to her imprisonment.

Ty Lee closed her eyes and remembered. She remembered watching Azula Firebend, all strength and power, so hard and so, so beautiful, sapphire blue fire, the flowers on her dressing-table she had tried so hard not to read too much into; but then she remembered other things: the time Azula had set fire to the tail of her plait because it amused her so to see Ty Lee hopping about and screaming, the time Azula had tricked her into climbing down a cliffside, each step a terrifying leap of faith, Azula and Mai about to duel, the princess bearing down on the older girl, all fire and fury, that final, desperate lunge to save her friend. Did she truly want that back in her life?

 _Azula's different now,_ said a voice in her head. _She needs help. You can give her help._

 _She can get help from professionals,_ replied a different voice. _She doesn't need you._

Perhaps Azula was fine where she was. Perhaps writing her a letter would only stir up the bitterness left over in Azula from the Boiling Rock fiasco. Yes. Get on with her life and hope Azula's improved. That was the best way forward.

"You're right, Niu," Ty Lee said into the older warrior's chest. "I'll forget Azula. I'm with you warriors now." She sighed and swallowed down fresh tears.

"It'll hurt, I know," Niu replied soothingly. "But in time, it will feel better."

Ty Lee managed a wider smile this time. "Thanks, Niu." When she went back to bed, she slept almost as soon as her head touched the pillow.

The following afternoon, however, she came to a decision. She went back inside to her writing-desk, and when the little ship carrying deliveries and post left the island, it carried with it a very precious letter, tied with a pretty green ribbon.

* * *

Mai adjusted her clothes for the fiftieth time, straightened her hair, and tried to quell the urge to vomit.

Needless to state, Mai was not feeling well this morning. She and Zuko had elected to celebrate Mai's last night of freedom before her parents' return by breaking into a bottle (or two) of the finest baijiu the Fire Nation had to offer, and getting drunk off their heads. Zuko had never drunk before, save the cup of sake he and Mai had shared without Azula's knowledge at Chan's party, and so he was innocent of the knowledge not only of his limits, but also of what a hangover was. Mai had only been drunk on one prior occasion, and the lecture she had received the following morning stood out so strongly in her mind that she had forgotten that it had penetrated through a skull-splitting headache. And so here she was, standing on her own front steps waiting to greet her family, complete with hangover and a very sore spot between her legs (how rough had he been? She honestly couldn't remember.)

Eventually, the horse-dragon-drawn cart rumbled into view, and out of it climbed her family: Ukano, Michi, and little Tomohiro in her arms. Standing together, the politician, his wife, and their little son, they were the very picture of propriety. It was somewhat of a shame that the hungover daughter ruined the picture.

Michi reached her daughter first, and looked her critically up and down. "You look terrible." was her abrupt evaluation. Mai's face remained set. She did not really want to know the specifics, but she had a funny feeling (quite aside from the one caused by her headache) that she was going to get them anyway. "You're too pale." was the first point. "Bags under your eyes. What time did you go to bed?"

What time? Mai had no idea. The last thing she remembered, if she really thought about it, was lying back on a heap of cushions, Zuko's lips smashed messily against hers, but she hadn't really been checking the candle at the time. "I'm not sure." The truth. "Between nine and ten." A blatant lie. It had gone half past ten when they broke open the second bottle, on the grounds that both of them felt very anti-climactically sober.

Michi bought the lie, and nodded. "Perhaps you should get yourself a sleeping potion."

"I'll do that." Mai's face did not change.

"Good. And _please_ put a dress on – that all-in-one garment is so unladylike – and you'd better not be hiding a single knife in there!"

Mai smiled inwardly. Technically, she _didn't_ have a _single_ knife about her person – she had eighty-six of them (at the last count). It didn't make her feel any less hungover or awkwardly sore, though.

Michi's eyes passed over her immaculately-styled hair – her usual ox horns – and nodded in a satisfied manner. Then, she sniffed.

"New perfume." Michi's eyes, the way they narrowed, reminded her of a fox-wolf whose nose has just caught a whiff of dinner. "Orchids. _Perfume_ at fifteen – and _orchids_ , Mai! _Orchids!_ "" Her tone suggested that Michi had taken her daughter's choice of scent as a personal insult. "So…unfashionable! It's so delicate, in completely the wrong way! Why, it's almost _Earth Kingdom_!" Michi shook her head sadly. Mai elected not to tell her that the orchid perfume had been Zuko's favourite of the scents she had shown him. Besides, she thought to herself, it was proof that the perfume worked that her mother smelled orchids and not the stubborn remnants of the sticky mess she had discovered between her legs that morning.

"Have you finished analysing me yet?" Mai asked her mother. "Can we go in?"

"Of course." Michi led the way. "I need a cup of tea after that journey – really, _what_ a lot of stress!"

"Yes, I'm sure that sitting on a ship and in a carriage for a few hours is _very_ difficult," Mai replied under her breath.

Ukano followed, sparing his daughter only the briefest of glances to ensure that she hadn't grown a second head, before he headed inside, Tomohiro toddling in his wake.

"Hi, Mai!" he beamed at her. He reached his arms up to her, expecting to be lifted into an embrace, but Mai shook her head. Really, after two years, he should have learned that Big Sister didn't give hugs as Big Sister hated his guts. Deflated, the little boy wandered inside.

Mai took a breath and followed her family inside, awkward gait, wincing at every step. Ouch, ouch, _ouch_. No more drunk sex for her. Eventually, after what seemed an eternity, the usually short walk to the morning room ended and Mai collapsed with great relief onto a sofa, resisting the urge to excuse herself so that she could find _something_ to do about the soreness – if Michi saw her wincing, it would be a dead giveaway of what she had been doing.

Michi ordered tea, and Mai sat up a little straighter, before her mother's attention turned to her. Michi turned just in time to see her daughter cross her legs in an attempt to soothe the ever-present soreness.

"Ladies do _not_ sit with their legs crossed, Mai." Mai dutifully uncrossed them, wincing only slightly, for crossing her legs had done little to ease the pain, and allowed herself to be once more looked over. Her headache had not gone, and it shortened her temper but, as usual, she bit her tongue.

"You don't look well," her mother continued, with a strange note in her voice. "Are you sure you aren't coming down with something?" She sounded oddly gentle, and Mai realised that the strange note in her voice was _concern_. She gave an inward start of surprise. When had her mother _ever_ worried about her? "Because I'd hate for little Tom-Tom to catch it, if so."

 _Figures_ , thought Mai bitterly. "No, I'm just a little…under the weather. Tired." She kept her face perfectly neutral. She could fantasise about throwing _little Tom-Tom_ against the wall and using him for target-practice later.

At that juncture, a servant brought the tea. Michi immediately set about supplying her son with biscuits, and the servant gave a little bow, but before she left, she said, "Miss has been over at the palace quite a bit."

Mai sat up very straight. The servant continued. "She'll head over, most days – every day, actually, I think – in the morning, and she won't return for ages. _We_ think–"

"Never mind what you think," snapped Michi. "You're here to serve tea, not give your opinion. Now, shoo."

Chastised, the servant bowed and left. With her dealt with, Michi turned on her daughter.

"Is this true, Mai?"

" _Yes_ ," Mai replied, very carefully. She braced herself for the storm, but Michi gave a creepily Ty Lee-esque squeal of delight.

"Oh, _Mai_! Finally, you're starting to appreciate your social standing! Oh, the _Fire Lord_! You lost your position with the princess, you saw that she was unstable, and you transferred your loyalty to her brother, who you saw was going to win the war! Oh, Mai, now you're at the forefront of our new modern society! My daughter! Oh, I've taught you so well! I'll bet he's going to offer you a position at court! Perhaps you could even end up as _Fire Lady_! Oh, _Mai_!" Michi took her very stunned daughter into her arms and squeezed her tightly. Over her shoulder, Mai caught her father's expression. Ukano was looking at her severely, and his brown eyes conveyed both exasperation at his wife's over-excitement (as she began to rock Mai back and forth) and suspicion of his daughter.

 _Does he know?_ Mai wondered. She didn't have time to weigh up the arguments for and against, however. All that rough handling had not been good for her hangover. She broke away from her mother, and sat back down rather heavily. Her head pounded. Perhaps her mother said something, but she didn't hear what it was. Her head felt as though it were filled with sand, and the morning room began to go fuzzy at the edges. Then her stomach heaved and jerked her back to consciousness, blurting out "I have to go. Excuse me." She stood up abruptly, stumbled over a small decorative table – almost as if she were still drunk, she thought later – and vomited indelicately out of the window.

* * *

Akemi headed to work, as usual, with a spring in her step. If there was one thing she loved, it was helping people, and the scared little girl she had seen in Azula had stuck in her mind more than the psychotic, power-hungry maniac.

 _We'll have you back in society again soon enough, kid,_ she thought happily as she headed up to Azula's room. Knocking, she was greeted by Azula's usual coldness.

"Come in. Take a seat. I know by now I'm not getting rid of you." Akemi chose to take that for a welcome and came in.

"How are you today, Azula?" she smiled kindly, sitting down opposite her patient.

Azula gave her a withering look. "The same I am every day. If you _really_ wanted to help me, you'd smuggle me out of here so that I can claim the throne back from my useless _brother_." She spat the word out as though she did not truly believe it.

"I'm not going to smuggle you out, Azula." Fukui had told her to respond that way to Azula's more ludicrous demands. "You can't take the throne from your brother." She cast about for a change of topic, and then remembered something. "Oh! You have a letter." She pulled it from her robe and handed it over. Azula looked at it with the utmost revulsion.

"Who's it from?"

"I don't know." Akemi looked at it again. "The green ribbon suggests Earth Kingdom. Perhaps it's from your friend Ty Lee."

That was evidently the wrong thing to say. Azula was on her feet instantly, eyes blazing with blue fire, looming over the young psychiatrist, the beautifully-rolled scroll with its lovingly-tied green ribbon burning to ashes in her hand. "Ty Lee is _not_ my friend! That _traitor_ deserted me, she and Mai were _weak_ , they caved in, Mai left me just for a few hugs and kisses, just a stupid, stupid… They were traitors, and _that's_ why I need to get out of here!" She looked down out of the window. She was on the eighth floor. A nine-storey drop wasn't what she had in mind. Her face grew very dark. "I need to get my revenge. I need to _end_ their perfect little lives!"

Akemi's face darkened. "Who would support you? We're here to help you. We're here to help you get back on your feet. We're all here to help. Everyone, our team at the hospital is here to get you back into your life. We're all just going to help you do what you can to make your life happy."

"The only way my life can be happy is if I get back to my father – that's the Phoenix King, you know, the ruler of the world – and my throne."

"Your father." Akemi knew little about Ozai – only what the public knew, and that Fukui blamed him for Azula landing on their doorstep. "Tell me about him. Why do you need to get back to him?"

Azula shook her head. "To get my orders, of course. He's always been the one giving the orders. Naturally, I was born to take orders. As I'm the useful child, he cares more about me than he does about Zuko. We're going to take back the throne from my usurper of a brother. Once he's busy ruling the world again, I'll be Fire Lord and look after the homeland. That's what I was born to do." Azula's head came up, a dark new resolve in her gold eyes.

Akemi wanted to contradict her, was about to tell her that she was born to do whatever she wanted to do, but the truth of Azula's words hit her. She and her brother had been bred as fighting leopard-bulls, the best one sent out and the extra one punished. Ozai was a despicable man, a horrible, evil monster, a…

 _Who is Ozai, anyway?_ thought Akemi suddenly. _If he's the root of the problem, I'll need to do my homework on the guy._ She steeled herself. _Perhaps a quick visit is in order._

Azula frowned. "I hope he won't be angry at me for winding up in here – but my moment of weakness has passed – I'm stronger now, and ready to serve him and my country once more. You'll see."

Her words barely registered in Akemi's mind. _I'm going to_ prison _– to visit perhaps the most evil man still living! Come on Akemi – you can do this. You knew working as a psychiatrist would be a messy business when you started studying. It's just one visit – come on, woman, he's lost his bending. You know you'll come out alive._

* * *

A couple of days after the return of Ukano and his family, Zuko decided, since he had a rare afternoon off, to pay his girlfriend a visit. Michi, convinced her daughter was ill, had kept her in her room to avoid Tomohiro catching what Mai privately referred to as "the mysterious hangover disease", and so Zuko had not seen her for this time. Both Michi and Ukano were out, the latter making political connections to ready himself for the new world and his wife simply sipping tea and discussing the latest fashions. She was probably, Zuko thought, also showing off her charming little two-year-old (completely ignoring, he added bitterly, the existence of her daughter, the prize piece of the family, almost like some dark, ethereal spirit in her beauty and grace, an almost overwhelming mixture of heady scents and dark, dark hair against pale, pale skin…)

Thinking now about her beauty, Zuko headed up the front steps and took out the key that Mai had given him. Sending up a silent prayer that her mother wasn't home, Zuko opened the door.

The first thing he heard was a loud "NO!" and just had time to jump before a pink, fleshy blob ran straight past him, through the open front door and into the street.

"Tomohiro!" His girlfriend's usual drawl was raised in an agonised shout, and she appeared a second later at the front door, unusually flustered. Her gaze followed his to the blob in the street, which turned out, upon closer inspection, to be a two-year-old. A very _naked_ two-year-old.

"You let him out!" she almost gasped.

"Why is he…?" Zuko wasn't even sure he wanted to know.

"He was having a tantrum and took his clothes off. Toddlers do that all the time." Mai paused for just a second, then cried "Come on! Let's catch him before the entire capital is treated to the sight of the streaking baby."

Tomohiro had just reached the front gate. "Come on. He's a two-year-old. A couple of warriors like us should be more than a match for him." Zuko reassured her.

The look Mai gave him radiated pure pity.

What Zuko discovered was that toddlers could be surprisingly _fast_. It took him no time at all to get up the path, but by that time, Tomohiro was halfway to the corner between two houses. Zuko and Mai gave chase, but he seemed to vanish for a second, reappearing halfway down an alleyway. Zuko followed, assuming his girlfriend was right behind him, and flinched as Tomohiro ran right out in front of a cart. Zuko stopped to let the cart pass, but these few valuable seconds caused him to lose sight of Tomohiro. He cast about wildly, and eventually spotted the little boy running further into the poorer – and somewhat seedier – part of the capital.

Bolting right after him, Zuko was immersed instantly in the world of his banishment: the gambling houses and brothels common to the sea villages his crew had insisted on stopping in. He saw a couple of vicious-looking men stop their squabbling and jump apart to let something small through. Zuko made a beeline for them, and promptly got a sword to the throat.

"You look pretty well off, my _friend_. Care to lend some funds?" A fireball aimed in his general direction soon put him off, and the chink of metal told him that Mai hadn't taken that chance. They kept running, past a couple of women, looking suspiciously like prostitutes, who gave him salacious winks. He didn't look back to see whether Mai glared at them or not.

"The sooner your brother gets out of this place, the better!" he shouted back over his shoulder.

Past the prostitutes now, Zuko felt better, but then, to his horror, he saw Tomohiro vanishing into the nearest building – which turned out to be a brothel. He dashed in without thought and saw the little boy being cooed over by two young and very giggly women, plying him with orange. Zuko dashed over and grabbed the boy, but, turning to go, found himself face to face with the woman in charge.

"Hello, young man," she smiled. "Is this your son? Do you require our services? These two lovely ladies can watch him while you–"

" _No thank you!_ " replied Zuko firmly. He felt his cheeks blaze. "And he's not my son – I'm sixteen. He's my girlfriend's–"

"Oh, _sixteen_ , are you?" The woman seemed delighted and the giggly girls grew even gigglier. "You won't know _what's_ in store for you, young man. Why, I doubt you'll ever have known the pleasures a woman can offer! We can fix you at a nice, low rate, one of my youngest girls, how does that sound?"

It was very fortunate, thought Zuko, that Mai chose that moment to come dashing in, panting, just in time to hear that, and the beginnings of Zuko's stumbling reply.

"Well, it's very nice of you to offer, but no–"

"Zuko, come _on_!" Mai helped him out hugely by grabbing him by the back of the collar and dragging him towards the door. "We'll just take the boy, thank you."

The woman sighed. She knew a failed deal when she saw one. "Oh, very well. Ami?" One of the giggly girls echoed her employer's sigh, and brought Tomohiro over. As he was placed in Mai's arms, she turned to the woman in charge.

"And I can assure you, I can give my boyfriend _everything_ he asks for. So long as he sticks with me, he'll never be in here again." She winked at Zuko then, handing her brother over, and he grinned nervously back, flushing again.

Tomohiro, however, wasn't having any. "NO!" He slid down in Zuko's arms and kicked him right between the legs.

"AARGH!" Zuko dropped the little boy like a hot cake and Tomohiro made a dash for the door.

"WANT MORE ORANGES!"

Zuko bolted after him, Mai in his wake, and was relieved to see Tomohiro's flight taking him to a more refined part of the capital. He was heading for a marketplace that Zuko had often frequented with his mother, which sold goods aimed more at the upper classes.

If chasing him in the open streets was difficult, it was nothing compared to chasing him through the marketplace. The three dived this way and that, innocent shoppers having to dodge a small boy, only to be then shoved, politely but still very firmly, out of the way by two teenagers. Tomohiro dived under a jewellery stall, but then caught sight of the desired oranges decorating the side of a fruit stand. He made a final sprint, his sister and her ever-loyal boyfriend in hot pursuit, but then, scared by the face of the severe-looking stallholder, changed direction at the final second.

The result was that Zuko found himself unable to stop in time, and ploughed into the fruit stand. Wood, awning, and fruit scattered across the neatly-swept street, and Zuko found himself sitting, thoroughly bruised as the collapsing structure prevented him from falling properly, covered in juice with splinters in his hair. Mai did not stop to help him but instead ran straight past, cornering her little brother under the nearest stall with an unusually vehement cry of " _There_ you are, you little fucker!" Zuko was too busy trying to smooth things over with the stallholder to care that she had just sworn at a two-year-old.

Once Zuko had promised the old woman that he would replace everything, Mai came over to him. "Are you OK? Sorry I couldn't stop to help, but I couldn't let the little horror get away again."

Zuko gave her a very sticky hug, and Mai pulled away and inspected her clothes with an expression of slight disgust. As a sort of consolation, Zuko pulled off his outer tunic and wrapped the little boy up in it. "Now _you_ , young man, are coming with us, before your sister dumps me."

Mai smiled almost tenderly at him. "I would never–"

"I need potty!" screamed Tomohiro. Then, he relaxed. "'S'OK now."

"Wait, why is it OK?" demanded Zuko, but Mai jumped in on top of him with a revolted:

"Oh, _Tomohiro_!"

Zuko looked down to see a suspicious wet patch adorning his tunic, which now clothed the little boy. "Oh, no, _no_!" He offered his burden to Mai, who shook her head firmly. Zuko decided to try a new tack. "Come on, Tomohiro. How would you like to see what the inside of the _royal palace_ looks like?" Tomohiro squealed in delight. "Because you and I both need baths, kid. I'll go off, and your sister can bath you."

"I'd rather bath _you_ ," Mai whispered in his ear.

"Not in _public_ , Mai!" Zuko whispered vehemently back.

"No-one heard," Mai replied smoothly. "Come on. Let's go." She rested her head on his shoulder, he wrapped an arm around her waist, the other still holding Tomohiro, and the three of them headed back to the palace.

* * *

 **Finally finished! Boy, this took forever, and Agni, is it late at night. But, hey, it's done, and I hope you all enjoyed it. Let me know if there was too much sex in this chapter, I thought that this one was particularly sex-heavy. That's all from me, so, leave a review, leave a favourite, leave a fruit tart, and see you in chapter three.**


	3. Onwards and Upwards

**Hi again! Welcome back! I've actually started to make myself a plan now, so I now know some more fine detail as opposed to just having all the big major events set out. I'm terribly sorry if I offended you, Avatar101, or anyone else. I have added a warning to the first chapter, to cover the whole story, and will add one again whenever I think a particular chapter is pushing it a bit. I'm just trying to set out what kind of a relationship the two have: a very teenage, hormone-driven, suggestive one. This will be important later. (Please PM me if you have a theory as to what that means – if too many people hit the mark, I'll take it down). I'm sorry. It won't happen again. Thank you, Annabelle 7.0, avatared, and Rascalize, for favouriting.** **Thank you too, Zuna (lovely name, by the way) for reviewing, but** ** _patience_** **, my child! (Although you're probably older than me.) It takes time to balance five-thousand-word chapters with school; throw a major holiday into the mix, and you can imagine. Thank you very much for the enthusiasm, however, it's lovely to read such kind** **words.** **Thank you also, Guest, for your encouragement. Also, that awkward moment when you forget to give** ** _your joint favourite character_** **a plotline! Anyone noticed anyone missing? Oops. Still don't own Avatar. I checked.**

* * *

The day after Tomohiro's little stunt, Zuko and Mai relaxed together on the sofa in Zuko's room at the palace. The night was drawing in, and only a couple of candles burned on a side table, Zuko not having had the energy to get up and light the wall sconces that provided the bulk of the room's lighting. The two were feeling satisfyingly full after eating dinner together, and the low lighting made them feel both romantic and pleasantly drowsy. They sat together, Mai between Zuko's legs, arms around each other and Mai's head resting against Zuko's shoulder. She had allowed him to take her hairpins out, and her hair flowed in a shimmering mass down to her shoulder blades, Zuko's fingers stroking and combing in a steady rhythm that had Mai's eyes drooping closed.

"This is nice," she whispered, snuggling further against her boyfriend. "I wish we could stay like this forever."

"Yeah," Zuko agreed, his fingers passing once more over her dark hair, caressing her scalp. "Let's get married." The words were out of his mouth before he had thought about them, and he panicked, but Mai only gave a dry, throaty laugh.

"Later, maybe." It was not the first time the two had discussed the issue. It was legal for anyone sixteen or over to engage themselves or someone in their care to anyone of any age, and the two could marry once both partners were sixteen. Both remembered Zuko's promises as a young boy to take her aside on his sixteenth birthday to propose, both naïvely assuming that they would be able to, that they would want to. Upon Zuko's return after his banishment, however, neither had felt quite ready, and Zuko had thought that, when he was still unsure whether or not he should have joined the Avatar, an engagement was exactly what he _didn't_ need.

"Yeah," Zuko said again. Mai could feel his hand still at the back of her head, and she knew he was slipping into a brooding mood again. "I'm sorry about what happened at the Boiling Rock. It was a stupid thing to promise."

"What specifically?" Mai asked. "You made a lot of promises."

"I know. You were upset, and I – I just wanted to make you feel better. You know I'd do anything to stop you crying." He took his hand from her hair, instead wrapping it tightly around her shoulders. "I meant about marrying you straight after the war. I…kind of got caught up in the moment. It wouldn't have happened."

"That was a crazy day." Mai smiled reminiscently. Her relaxed mood had temporarily removed the sting from the memory, and she felt sure that time, especially time passed with Zuko, would remove it permanently. "When my uncle came to tell me off before they took my stuff and all the rest, I just laughed in his face. I'd had enough." She felt Zuko stiffen, and immediately regretted her words. Reminding him of how emotionally wrung-out he had made her feel by the end of the day would not help him feel better about himself. "But about the marriage – you assumed your uncle would take the throne. You'd have had all the time in the world to organise a wedding."

"We're still too young, though, really," Zuko pointed out.

"Oh, stop being so negative!" Mai half-laughed. "If you prefer to wait until we've got our majority, that's fine by me, although I'd prefer you to snap me up sooner rather than later. You should have seen what my mother was like when you were banished and there was no chance of me becoming Fire Lady! I had to vomit on one poor guy just to keep myself single for you!"

" _Vomit_ on a guy?" Zuko laughed. "You _have_ to tell me that story!"

"I was fourteen." Mai sounded almost dreamy. "His name was Suzuki Ayumu – you'll have heard of the Suzukis, they're everywhere – and he was thirty…thirty-six, I think."

"Your parents tried to marry you to a thirty-six-year-old?!" Zuko sat bolt upright.

"Let me tell the story. I'm sure you know that someone so close to the royal family would be a prize catch – and if you don't, I'll sit you down and make you listen to one of my mother's three-hour lectures–"

"Someone so close to the royal family?" Zuko interrupted, pulling her as close as he could and leaning down to her ear, punctuating his next words with a shower of kisses. "As opposed to someone so beautiful, and clever, and graceful, and talented, and loyal, and brave, and witty, and–"

"Let me tell the _fucking_ story!" Mai pushed him away and clamped a hand over his mouth, laughing at his surprised expression before settling back down against him. "He was the middle son – father was a general, so he's lost his job, if he's not too ancient – and I think his parents were pissed off at him for not getting married sooner. To my knowledge, he still hasn't found anyone. I remember him saying something about the match being their idea – mind you, I don't remember much about that night!" Mai gave another laugh, and Zuko grinned. It was fast becoming one of his favourite sounds – perhaps his favourite sound of all. "The deal was, my mother would throw a huge party in our ballroom, and she and my father, and General and Lady Suzuki would seal the deal there. Well, obviously, if I was married to this Suzuki guy, I couldn't marry you, so I knew I had until about halfway through the party to give the Suzukis some reason not to marry their son to me. You know that craze there was a while ago for drinking a tiny, tiny bit of baijiu mixed with a tonne of fruit juice – actually, you probably wouldn't, I don't suppose you got invited to too many fancy parties while you were banished. Well, my mother, fashionable as ever, had set out all our nicest jugs filled with baijiu and fruit juice, and so I stole one of the baijiu jugs and hid in the corner with it. Well, I suppose you can imagine what happened next. About an hour and a half in – half an hour before I hit my deadline – the guy I'm supposed to marry comes to talk to me, and finds me completely hammered. We talked for a bit, although I can't remember much of the conversation – one of the things I do remember was him saying that I'd be better off marrying his younger brother's eldest, who was actually my age – the brother had eight sons – eight! – and I hear he has a couple more now! And, just as he was about to go, I knew I had to finish in style, and I could feel it coming, so I just aimed myself at his very best formal robes and… Well, you can imagine." Mai, finishing her story, smiled a little sheepishly up at her boyfriend, having the good grace to look at least a little ashamed.

Zuko, for his part, laughed. The thought of his incredibly ladylike girlfriend getting so drunk that she vomited on another person was so discordant that he wasn't sure how else to react. Mai smiled up at him again, watching with a faintly amused expression until he calmed down enough to ask, with some concern, "What happened afterwards?"

Mai sighed. "A servant put me to bed – Suzuki Ayumu might have been about to ruin my life, but he was a nice guy, and he made sure I got some water and was properly looked after. I may have passed out, but I'm not sure. The ball finished early since the Suzukis were so angry they left there and then – I suppose Ayumu needed to clean up anyway. In the morning, however, it was a different story. Azula was extremely pissed off when she heard – she'd been invited, but she didn't go – she said her friends should know better. Ty Lee wasn't there either, by the way – although her parents and her two eldest sisters were. My mother shouted at me, told me I was nothing better than a particularly filthy beggar and that I'd never make a good match like that – I suppose I can kind of see her point there – and shut me in my room for a week on leftovers. My father – well, he looked at me for once, let me say that!" Mai's laugh was shaky as she recalled the much more immediate punishment her father had doled out, and Zuko, putting two and two together, tightened his embrace and buried his nose in her soft hair, nuzzling her gently, a gesture of consolation all he could offer. Mai sighed again.

"I'm sorry for deflating the mood like that. We were so happy ten minutes ago." She rested her head on his shoulder and submitted to his renewed stroking of her hair. "But at least now we can get married. I want to – some day." This was delivered with none of her previous humour, instead with a kind of sadness, mixed in with a strange combination of tenderness and hope. "I won't have to worry about my father at all, then, once I'm living full-time with you."

"Are you staying over tonight?" Zuko asked her. "I'm going to assume no."

"Why would you assume that?" Mai asked sleepily, not looking up. "I've left enough stuff over here to be able to manage without an overnight bag. I know I didn't plan to stay over, but I'm too comfy to get up and go home – besides, now you've made me want to snuggle with you tonight." She slid further down, so that she lay with her head in his lap, and Zuko laid one arm across her torso, reaching the other one down to continue playing with her hair, but she caught his hand in her own, pressing his fingers tenderly to her cheek, and Zuko saw no reason to resist.

Those three special words, the full and complete expression of his feelings for her, were on the tip of his tongue, but Zuko baulked, and allowed the comfortable silence to continue to perfume the air, covering them both like a blanket. "Do you remember Taro?" was how he eventually broke it. "That son we dreamed up?"

"Mm-hm."

"I can see his face now. He'd have your eyes. You've got such beautiful eyes."

"Whatever." Mai sighed contentedly as Zuko lay down next to her, wrapping her arms around him and closing her eyes.

* * *

"You do know that the food in this house is supposed to be for all nine of us?"

Sokka turned from where he had been rooting through the kitchen of the Kyoshi Warriors' designated boarding house to behold his girlfriend striding towards him, dressed in casual clothes after a hard day's training and looking, as always, gorgeous.

"Suki!" He held his arms out for her and Suki stepped into them gladly, giving her boyfriend a playful peck on the end of his nose before eying the plate of cakes that Fen and Lia had been planning to split – "in secret".

"Where'd you find that? I heard Lia telling Fen that she'd hidden it where no-one could ever find it."

Sokka snorted. "Yeah – at the back of the crockery cupboard. Lin told me where it was. She gets that jammy one, there."

"Is it me or is all you do nowadays eat and flirt with my warriors?"

"Eat, _chat_ with the other warriors, and train," replied Sokka. He pulled Suki back into his embrace. "The truth is, I've been at a bit of a loose end since the end of the war. Everyone else is off doing all these great re-buildingy things, and here I am, flicking between fishing and cleaning out the larder at home, and visiting you–"

"And cleaning out the larder here!" finished Suki with a laugh.

"Do you think I'm fat?" laughed Sokka, pulling back far enough to pat Suki's own flat stomach.

Suki laughed along with him. "Fat? Oh, no – you're all muscle." She ran a hand appreciatively up his arm. "Sleeveless guy." She laughed, then gestured to the plate of cakes. "Come on – let's find somewhere to hide with this, and then we can snuggle."

The two snuck through the house, Suki leading her boyfriend up to the attics, where they settled themselves in amongst a pile of boxes, which turned out to contain pictures of past warriors. In accordance with her promise, Suki nestled against Sokka, resting her head on his shoulder, while he contemplated the plate of cakes, before choosing the second best one – the best one, tragically, being the jam-filled one he had promised to Lin in return for the plate's whereabouts – and slipping it to Suki.

There was a sense of peace in the attic, a gentle quiet, despite the fact that the boarding house currently held nine occupants: the eight Kyoshi Warriors, and Sokka himself, although only temporarily. It was quite a large house, with three storeys (not counting the attic), and four bedrooms. As the leader, Suki had the privilege of her own room, the bed, as she and her boyfriend had proved, just large enough to comfortably sleep two. The other seven warriors were a noisy bunch: Ai, who, at sixteen, was the eldest, was the self-appointed deputy leader, removed only from the true leadership by the fact that Suki, easily the most proficient, had begun training at eight years of age, instead of the usual thirteen. She was by far the pushiest, but was impervious to the taunts of the other warriors, only too happy to settle into her place beneath Suki. Lin and Lia were thirteen-year-old twins who alternated between constantly being together and wanting nothing to do with each other, Lin the warrior with the most common sense and Lia the ditsiest – it had been Lin who had remarked that, in Ty Lee, Lia had found a kindred spirit, and the two could happily rabbit on all day long. Xue, aged fourteen, was the quietest, better at fighting than at logic, and so preferred to say nothing rather than risk looking stupid in front of her fellow warriors, despite knowing they valued her regardless. Niu mothered her, and it had been she who had introduced her to Sokka. Upon hearing that Sokka was the brains of the Avatar's team, she had retreated into herself, and Sokka was still trying to get her to open up. Niu had assured him that she would, in time. Fen was the youngest, a mere twelve, small and wiry and eager to stick up for herself and play her part. Sokka, upon introduction, had begun to think of her – and address her – as "little Fen" – a name which, much to her chagrin, had caught on with the other warriors.

Suki had to note that, today, the other warriors were being remarkably quiet, or maybe they were all outside in the blazing sunshine. The two felt pleasantly as though they had the house all to themselves, and as they ate their stolen cakes – _wouldn't_ Fen and Lia be mad, but that was how things worked among the warriors – they couldn't help but feel a soothing sense of intimacy.

"Love you, baby." Those words, so hard to say for some, came easily to Sokka. He didn't care how long his relationship with Suki lasted – although he did hope for marriage and children – as long as they both enjoyed it to the full, making the most of each individual moment together as though it were the last. Suki didn't respond with words, instead snuggling further into his shoulder and giving a hum of contentment, basking in the glow of Sokka's affections.

"So you don't know what to do now?" Suki asked, once they had been eating for a few minutes, and the cakes were running thin.

"Yeah - what do you do? Just train?" It occurred to Sokka that he had no idea what the Kyoshi Warriors actually _did_. He had watched them train and train and train some more, but he had only once seen them in action. And now the war was over, both had been phased out somewhat. Sokka wasn't entirely sure what would threaten Kyoshi Island in peacetime.

Suki grinned at him. "Of course not!" Then, she giggled. "Well, yeah, actually. We had a talk, then I had a chat with Oyaji. The Kyoshi Warriors were started up to take in female orphans and give them a purpose in life. That's why we all live here, and not in family homes. Anyway, the idea is that we give back to the community by protecting it. It's like a day's walk right around the coast, I checked, we're not a big island - by a day, I mean leave after breakfast and back in time for dinner - we can get anywhere we want on foot. So we've started ourselves up as a kind of law enforcement thingy - just grabbing thieves and stuff and bringing them to Oyaji so that he can deal with them. The thing is, though, that we're such a nice, peaceable island that we haven't actually been needed." She shrugged. "So the training régime goes on."

"I could help with that," Sokka suggested.

Suki laughed. "You'd have to wear the uniform!" she cooed teasingly.

"Yeah, I'm done with that." Sokka shook his head. "Couldn't you make a more masculine version?"

Suki drew herself up in mock indignation. "Ex- _cuse_ me, mister! We Kyoshi Warriors have been wearing this uniform for hundreds of years! It's the dress or nothing for you!"

"Not sure what would look worse!" Sokka laughed.

Suki considered, one finger on her chin. "Well, you in a dress gave me and the girls the biggest laugh we've ever had, but you wearing _nothing_ –" She giggled flirtatiously, teasingly close to his ear as her fingers traced over the muscles of his arm. "Now, _that's_ something I like to see!"

"Yeah – I'm not going to fight crime in my birthday suit." Sokka shook his head sadly. "In our room, perhaps." He laughed.

"I'll be the criminal, and you can capture me and tie me to the bedpost," Suki grinned.

Sokka gave another shout of laughter. "Kinky."

Suki flushed, a bright red that clashed nicely with her hair. "That is _not_ what I was thinking. I was thinking, you know, a make-believe game, like you'd play when you're a kid."

"But with me naked?"

"Yeah."

"And then sex?"

"Yeah."

"It's a deal."

Suki giggled. "I can't believe I just agreed to that. Remember my bedroom door doesn't lock."

Sokka grinned. "Doesn't matter." His grin faded. "So, that's us done for the night – but what about the rest of my life? If I can't join the Kyoshi Warriors, what else can I do?"

"Stay home and raise our kids?" Suki gave him a sly sidelong grin.

"Fuck you."

Suki laughed. "No?"

"Fuck you." Sokka said again. "How is that fair?"

"I push them out, you raise them – sounds fair to me."

They looked at each other for a second, then both dissolved into giggles.

"Seriously," Sokka smiled, "I'll help to raise the kids. I'll mop the floors and wash the dishes."

Suki grinned back. "Best. Boyfriend. _Ever_." She leaned over and kissed him sweetly, holding him, and relaxing as his arms wrapped around her and he returned the kiss. "You're gonna be an awesome husband," she said, once she pulled back.

"You're gonna be an amazing wife." Sokka leaned in and pecked her on the lips.

"But for what you can do–" Suki screwed her face up. "Can you think of a time – recently – when you were honestly having a tonne of fun – not fighting, doing something else?"

Sokka thought. "When I was at the Northern Temple, there was this guy there – everyone called him the Mechanist. We designed this balloon together, and it was awesome."

"See?" Suki looked as though she had been struck with some great divine knowledge. "You could be an inventor! You're really smart, and really creative, and you'd invent so much great stuff!"

"That's amazing!" Sokka leapt up. "An inventor! I'll get started right away!" He pulled his girlfriend up and twirled her round and round the room, laughing and shrieking. Once they were both out of breath, they collapsed back down by their boxes, and Sokka helped himself to a cake. "Actually, it's too hot right now."

Suki laughed again, and the two ate in silence for a few minutes. Eventually, Sokka broke it. "You know about you all being orphans and all?"

"Hmm?"

"Well, Lin and Lia are definitely the best off – you know, 'cause they have each other."

"We all have each other," Suki replied quietly. "And now I have you." She leaned her head on his shoulder. "I love you."

"I love you too." Sokka replied, and they were just leaning in for a kiss when the trap door to the attic burst open, and Lia sprinted into the little room.

"Suki, Fen and I had this plate of cakes, and now it's gone, do you know–" Her frantic voice quieted suddenly as she looked down and saw what was at the couple's feet. "You've got to be kidding me. You've got to be _fucking_ kidding me!" She turned on her heel, her wavy brown hair swishing behind her, and disappeared. "Fen! Sokka and Suki fucking ate our _fucking_ cakes!"

From below, the young couple heard a loud and prolonged expletive.

* * *

Toph opened her sightless eyes, sat up in bed, yawned, and stretched. Another morning, another day, each almost pleasantly the same as the last. After shrugging on the first clothes she found - yesterday's - she headed downstairs and greeted her host with a rumble of her stomach and a burp. "Good morning," was the third part of her salutation, her tone offering no apology for the previous two.

"Good morning, my young friend." Iroh's eyes twinkled as he beheld the girl, a girl he was incredibly attached to. Toph had not forgotten the nature of their first meeting, as compared with most of her friends' first impressions, and, of all the gang, save, of course, Zuko, Toph was the one to whom he was closest. When the old general-turned-tea-maker offered up his tea shop as a safe house, temporary or permanent, for any of the group to drop in to whenever they needed, Toph was the only one who had accepted then and there, and, after their celebration, she had stayed on, working as a waitress while she tried to work out, like so many of her friends, what to do with her life in the long haul.

For now, though, she accepted the steaming cup of jasmine tea and the bowl of jook he offered her, and began to eat. Finishing her meal with another burp, she got up, thanked her host - there was a difference between following ladylike conventions and just plain being nice - and plodded over to retrieve her apron, tying it on with surprising deftness. Soon, the breakfast rush would begin, and the two would be rushed quite neatly off their feet.

Hours later, Iroh locked the grand front doors of the ornate building and settled down at the nearest table with a sigh of relief, and then one of exasperation as he remembered that the family that had sat at this table had had two small boys - a memory triggered by the placement of his elbow on a large patch of mysterious goo that looked suspiciously like dissolved mooncake. Obligingly, Toph appeared from the adjacent table, cloth in hand, and gave it a quick wipe down before sitting down opposite him and handing him the rag so that he could see to his elbow.

"Hey," she said. "Long day."

"It was indeed exhausting," the old man smiled. "But the joy of sharing good tea with my fellows will never fade."

"Maybe it won't for you," Toph replied, a little grumpily. "But not everyone's life revolves around hot leaf juice."

"Tea is not simply hot leaf juice," Iroh told her. "Tea can be a metaphor for life itself."

Toph made a sceptical sort of noise.

"But a life serving tea is not for everyone," the old tea-maker continued. "For many, the path of life takes them elsewhere."

"Yeah - but where?" demanded Toph.

"I'm not going to answer that one for you." Iroh took a long, slow sip of his tea, inhaling the fumes and allowing the scent to relax him. "The path is one you must navigate for yourself. If someone else leads you down it, how can it be your life, and not theirs?"

"Like my parents," scowled Toph. "They tried to lead me down the _path of life_."

Iroh stroked his long, grey beard. "And how did they try to do that?"

Toph snorted. "They were always so protective over me, just because I was born blind. They had me watched all the time – kept me in my room. Told me off for going in the garden for too long. I tried to show them I was capable, but they never listened! They just had me watched even more!"

"It sounds to me that your parents were simply worried about you." Iroh was still stroking his beard. "But they let their worry for you overcome everything else, so that when you asked for more freedoms, their response was to protect you even more, so that those freedoms could not hurt you in any way."

"That doesn't change the fact that they tried to control me!" Toph's anger morphed into determination. "I'm never going back."

"That is a very drastic measure to take." Iroh's tone was one of mild interest, and Toph, thinking on her statement, was transported back to her conversation with Katara in that spirit-forsaken _wooden_ cell, and wondered how her parents had taken her letter. She wondered if perhaps she was being too harsh. Then she remembered her father's tone as he told her that she would have to be watched twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, and she decided that no, her resolution was completely justified. But then… she trusted the man in front of her. He was like one of the kind, jovial grandfathers in the books her mother had read to her. They had felt so close during those readings. Part of her missed that.

"What do you think I should do?" The question was out of her mouth before she could stop it.

"I suggest that you go home and speak to your parents. Talk about what is troubling you and how their treatment of you made you feel. If you do not wish to stay, you can choose to make your own way in life, or you can return here."

 _Finally,_ thought Toph. Something definitive, something she could use to act. The best part of Iroh's wisdom floated over her head, too waffly to make sense to her. "Yeah," she said abruptly. "I'll do that." It was something she realised now that she had been working towards in her own mind, and it had just taken Iroh's words to shine a light on the thought she had built. Now she had her answer, however, she did not wish to continue this discussion of her feelings. She stood up. "I'm going to my room. Tell me when it's dinnertime, oh Voice of Wisdom."

Once she had gone, Iroh shook his head. "She is truly a girl like no other," he said to himself.

* * *

With his pile of paperwork disappearing nicely, and no meetings all day, Zuko had arranged to spend the evening with his beloved girlfriend. He had been looking forward to it: a long, lazy snuggle on the sofa, a candlelit dinner, more snuggling – that never got old – and then, if she thought she could get away with it, she would stay the night, and they would let their cosy snuggle melt into a heated make-out session, and Zuko was really looking forward to what they had arranged next.

His hopes were dashed, however, when, as Mai opened the front door of her parents' house, the first thing he heard was, "Mai, I gotta go potty-pee!"

"Go then," Mai sighed tiredly, releasing the squirming bundle in her arms with a suspicious glance between him and the door. "As you can see," she addressed Zuko now, a note of sadness in her voice, "I'm going to have to cancel on our little date."

She gestured for him to come inside, then led him to the nearest sitting room and invited him to sit down. Tomohiro followed them, looking up at Zuko with trepidation in his grey eyes, and the older boy realised that he was eyeing his scar.

"My mother's gone to a dinner party," Mai sighed by way of explanation, putting Tomohiro back down on the floor as he tried to crawl into her lap. "She only told me at the last moment – seriously, right before she left – and I tried to get out of it, I told her I had some vitally important business with the _Fire Lord_ that had to be attended to _this evening_ , but she was having none of it." She sighed again. "I really was looking forward to spending the evening with you – just like we used to."

Zuko scowled. He had asked the cook, Airi, to prepare all Mai's favourites, and everything, but now his plans lay in ruins. And he was feeling the absence of his girlfriend, missing the feel of her, tall and slender, in his arms. But as he looked at the little boy, an idea blossomed in his mind. Perhaps their evening wouldn't be as romantic as they'd hoped, but they could still spend it together. And wasn't making this kind of sacrifice what being a good boyfriend was all about? He steeled himself, and said:

"I could help you babysit the kid. Will he be in bed by the time your mother gets back, do you think?"

Mai frowned. "I think so. Those dinner parties always drag on for hours, because dinner has so many courses, and then they all want to chat forever. I remember my parents went to one once, and left me in the house with the live-in servants. The cook was very nice, she let me raid the kitchen for snacks, and someone kept a look-out for my parents so that they could rush me off to bed and pretend I'd been there since the usual time. It seemed as though they were gone forever."

Zuko frowned, the same twinge of protective anger he always felt when he thought of Mai's parents welling up inside. Their treatment of their daughter ranged from severe to neglectful to downright cruel, and Zuko had always been her pillar to lean on, the ointment to soothe her wounds. "So, we'll have some time alone between his bedtime and your mother's return. Is it just her, or your father too?"

"Both," Mai replied. "Wait, do you actually want to spend any more time with _this_ ," She nudged Tomohiro with her foot, prompting a stream of giggles, "than you absolutely have to?"

"If it's time spent with you, then it's worth it," Zuko smiled, leaning in slightly.

"You're such an idiot," Mai smiled, moving in the rest of the way to kiss him sweetly, ignoring Tomohiro's noise of disgust. "Thank you."

What Zuko discovered half an hour later was that looking after a small child was a lot harder than it sounded. Whenever he had pictured himself as a father, looking after Taro, the son he and Mai had dreamed up after their argument on Ember Island, he had always imagined the little boy to be submissive to his care, always happy to play with whatever toy Zuko handed him and to eat what he was given. He had learned this evening that he knew nothing. _Nothing_. Mai was sprawled out on the sofa, sporting a long scratch on one cheek – Agni, he would make the little bastard pay if the kid were old enough to know better – and her hair pulled loose from its ox horns, while Zuko was wondering how exactly Tomohiro had managed to throw a toy higher than Zuko himself could reach. And it wasn't just _any_ toy , oh no. It was his _favourite_ toy, a brown teddy bear with eyes of a rich, deep umber, which meant that there was a tantrum of the highest calibre just beginning. Zuko's eyes darted from the boy, sitting in the middle of a circle of inferior, alternative toys holding his breath (no doubt in preparation to let it loose in one piercing, powerful scream, the first of many) and slowly turning blue, to the bookshelf onto which the bear had been thrown. His girlfriend plainly had no willpower to get up off the sofa and grapple once more with her little brother, and he wasn't going to make her, so he was forced to deal with this dilemma on his own.

In the end, he chose to get the bear, reasoning that the tantrum would not end until Tomohiro held it in his arms, and turned his attention to the problem of the bookshelf – taller than him by about half his height. He began to pull books off the shelf, the biggest, sturdiest ones, and pile them up to make a stand. He realised halfway up the pile that half his height in books would not hold steady, and so he climbed down. It was at that moment that Tomohiro, seeing Zuko take a step backwards on the road to retrieving Brown Bear, let out a devastating yell that, Zuko felt, should have torn all the glass from every window in the world.

Fortunately, this brought Mai off the sofa and she was at her brother's side at once, shushing him in tones that sounded more harsh than soothing, and so Zuko was given a little peace to continue his task. He cast about the room in hopes of inspiration, and his gaze landed on a small footstool. He carried that over to the bookshelf and piled the books on top, but he was still nearly a foot short. The books shifted under his feet and he dared not add any more. He stood there awkwardly for a minute or two before a brilliant flash of inspiration struck him like a lightning bolt.

He dashed from the room and down the corridor, opening door after door after door until he found a cleaning cupboard, and he returned to the sitting room bearing his prize: an ordinary mop.

However, once he had climbed back up onto his haphazard structure, he found that using the mop was a lot harder than it seemed. His efforts only seemed to push the bear further and further back, and he could feel his girlfriend's beautiful eyes boring into the back of his head, wondering if he had quite lost his mind.

Eventually, though, he succeeded in dragging the bear from on top of the bookshelf, letting it drop heavily down to the floor. Tomohiro let out a squeal of delight and began to crawl towards it, but the footstool had had enough. One of the delicately-carved legs broke, depositing Zuko and the books onto the floor, missing Tomohiro by a whisker. The boy began to giggle loudly, but Mai was on her feet in an instant, rushing over to her boyfriend.

"Agni, Zuko, are you OK?" She leaned down to press a kiss to his lips, sweet and soothing. Tomohiro's giggles died away abruptly.

" _Toppit_ , Mai!"

Mai pulled away, then turned to face her brother, her expression all severity. "OK, bed."

"But 'tsnot time!" Tomohiro's bottom lip quivered and Zuko hoped and prayed that there would not be another tantrum.

"Bad little boys who make their sisters' lives difficult go to bed early," she snapped.

"But…but…" Tomohiro's eyes filled with tears in a way that Zuko noted would actually be kind of adorable were it not the portent of another hissy fit. Mai, probably because of the latter, was unmoved.

"Bed. Now." Zuko wondered what she would be like as a mother. He wanted a child with Mai, and he trusted her completely to look after them, but the thought of her crooning to or pampering their little one – _only_ one – rang discordant.

"NO!" screamed the little boy, and took off through the sitting-room door. Snapped out of his reverie, Zuko ran after him, following in his girlfriend's wake, and fortunately managed to apprehend him at the foot of a flight of stairs. Mai scooped the wriggling toddler up into her arms, and carried him up towards his room.

"I'm _thirsty_ ," whined the little boy. "Can I have some juice?"

"No," snapped Mai, but Zuko wavered. Could they really send the child to bed thirsty? Would he be able to sleep? Would Mai be punished if Tomohiro complained to Michi?

"I don't know, Mai – doesn't he kind of have a right to a drink if he wants?"

Mai turned to him and gave him That Look, the look that said "you're being really stupid, and stupid people are not worth my time" which should have made Zuko feel like dirt, were it not for the fact that her eyes narrowed in the same way they did when she was turned on (although the frigid, steely look in them bore no similarities), and her lips parted in a way that made him want to shove his tongue between them.

"I'm just saying – what if your mother decides that you haven't looked after him properly and puts you in the cupboard or something?"

"The cupboard stopped working years ago and my mother knows it," Mai replied, but she turned around and carried her brother back down the stairs.

Two glasses of juice and some ice-cream (how had _that_ been managed, Zuko wondered, although he had a sinking feeling that it had been he who had caved and not Mai) later, Tomohiro was ready to admit defeat. He had, after all, been kept up past half past seven now, so he truly was the cat's bathmat.

"OK now." Mai sounded tired in a way that made Zuko's heart wrench, and he put a hand on her shoulder. "Bathtime." The word was accompanied by a sigh, and Zuko's heart filled once more with dread. What further challenges lay ahead?

He carried Tomohiro now – he would have preferred to carry Mai, let her wrap her arms around his neck and relax, and he would do the work of getting up the stairs, for she looked _so_ fed up with life, and he wanted to get that horrible blank look out of her eyes – to the bathroom Mai led him to, close to Tomohiro's little nursery. Zuko held the squirming bundle while Mai set herself about filling a small tub – roughly half the size of an average bathtub, Zuko reckoned, and a sixth of the size of his own – with water from a kettle. She dipped a finger in and made a face, then turned to Zuko, who clutched the little boy tighter and mentally prepared himself for Round… how many were they on now?

"Firebend it warm," she told him, darting over to lock the door _before_ he let Tomohiro go, and, as he moved over to obey her instruction, he saw her removing her dart launchers and all other deadly weaponry that adorned her arms, peeling off her hand protectors and pushing up her wide sleeves.

She brought Tomohiro over before he decided that her knives would make good playthings and knelt down next to him with the air of a surgeon preparing to perform some life-saving operation. Lifting the boy up, he allowed her to remove his slippers and socks, but when she made to untie the sash of his juice-stained tunic, an expression of extreme distaste on her lovely features, he thrashed suddenly and managed to slip down sufficiently in her grasp to bite down hard on her hand.

Her shriek caused anger to flare hot within Zuko, but he shoved it down as she handed the boy off to him.

" _You_ can undress him," she said testily.

Zuko did just that, before dumping the boy into the water. Tomohiro screamed and thrashed again, sending a wave of water over the young couple. Mai sighed and headed over to a cupboard – leaving her boyfriend to continue to be soaked – from which she took two bars of soap, a face flannel, a sponge, and a rubber turtle-duck. Placing the last in the water, she wet the face flannel and began to wash her brother's face, Zuko watching intently, both in the hopes of learning something, and because her expression of concentration was strangely mesmerising. Tomohiro began to shake his head and splash his hands in the water, wetting his sister anew, but she did not waver, and finally drew back. She gave Zuko the sponge, and reminded him to be gentle, before settling down to watch, an expression of grim satisfaction on her face.

Zuko struggled to wash the boy's body, and the hair took both of them: Mai to actually wash the hair, and Zuko to subdue – sorry, _comfort_ – him as they struggled to keep the water out of his eyes. At long last, however, Tomohiro played complacently with Rubber Turtle-Ducky while his babysitters knelt in a veritable pool of water, and Zuko took Mai's bitten hand in his.

The mark had faded to a subtle red outline, but he rubbed her hand anyway, kneading the flesh gently with both his thumbs. Her hands were always soft, rarely seeing the light of day under her hand protectors, but the bathwater had made them even softer, and Zuko got the impression that he was enjoying this more than she was. Transferring his gaze to her face, he saw her smiling indulgently, and he continued, inspecting her beautiful hand with its long, nimble fingers, and that long, white scar that had once been a deep gash. He remembered it well – the inspiration behind her ninth birthday present from him: tough leather hand protectors, too large then, but the perfect fit now. It gave him a surge of pride to think that she still wore them. He expanded his caresses to the soft skin of her inner forearm, but it was then that Tomohiro began to complain of cold water, and he pressed a kiss to her palm, and another to her wrist before heading over to lift Tomohiro out of the bath, holding him out for Mai to wrap him in a fluffy yellow towel. Just for a moment, if one could forget the hell he had put the couple through this evening, Zuko thought, he did look quite cute.

Mai carried Tomohiro to his little room, and set him down on the bed, still be-towelled and looking like a little turtle-duckling. Zuko held him – Agni knew the little creature was an opportunist and would jump at every chance to escape – while she rummaged in a drawer, eventually pulling out a pair of small pyjamas. She approached Tomohiro, a determined glint in her eye, and at the sight of them, Tomohiro threw himself down and, red in the face, began to bawl, legs kicking, arms flailing.

It felt like years before they managed to wrestle him into those pyjamas, but at last, battle won, they set him on the bed, a feeling of smug satisfaction spreading through Zuko. That was the last fight of the campaign: they were the victors, and all that remained was to tuck him beneath the colourfully embroidered sheets, and leave him there, and they were done. Done!

Alas, if only he knew. When Mai drew back the sheets, Tomohiro squirmed in Zuko's arms and let out one final, resolute "NO!"

That was the final straw. Zuko dumped him on the bed, grabbed his arms, and squatted down to look him square in the face. "OK – _what's_ the deal? You've been throwing tantrum after tantrum all evening, you've worn your poor sister down 'til she's ready to hit something – she's been looking after you, she doesn't deserve this!"

Tomohiro's lip pushed out. "You forgot something," he said petulantly.

The couple stared at each other, identical expressions of utmost horror painting their faces.

"Forgot what?" Mai snapped.

"I'm not going to sleep until you read me a story," Tomohiro folded his chubby little arms and stared at his babysitters stubbornly. "He can do it," he added, pointing to Zuko.

Zuko wasn't done with him yet, though. "A _story_? All you wanted was a _story_? Then why didn't you say? All this for a fu– a _stupid_ story? _Agni_ , I hate you right now."

"A bedtime story," was Tomohiro's response to this, crawling under the covers and watching with satisfaction as Zuko dragged himself to Tomohiro's little bookcase.

He picked out a book at random, and came back to the bed. Tomohiro looked at him with interest, and Mai sat down next to him, her head on his shoulder. He opened the first page, and began to read.

It was a simple story, about a young boy's long journey to bed - the irony of this was not lost on Zuko - and he found himself surprisingly charmed. The little boy's eyes drooped closed, his round face the very picture of innocence, and by the time the fictional boy was safely tucked up between the sheets, Tomohiro's breathing had deepened into the steady rhythm of sleep.

He looked so sweet, sleeping there, that Zuko found it hard to tear himself away. It almost wiped away his half-a-dozen tantrums, the scratch on Mai's cheek, the bite on her hand. Perhaps all toddlers had their off-days. He was sure Taro would be a bother from time to time. But it would all be worth it for moments like this.

He came out of his reverie when he realised that Mai had gone downstairs and left him on Tomohiro's bed, smiling sappily at the little boy. He left the room and went to look for her, and when he found her, the sight of her took his breath away.

She lay on the sofa in the sitting room, eyes closed and breathing deep. Dark hair streamed over her face, fluttering as she breathed, shimmering in the light from the singular wall sconce she had lit. Her wide lips were parted slightly and each breath came out a beautiful, gushing sigh. Her eyes fluttered open as she heard him enter, but she made no move to swing her slender legs down from over the arm as she gestured for him to join her.

He did just that, lying next to her and twining his arms around her. His nose was buried in her hair, and he inhaled its sweet scent. Jasmine. Nice. He lay there in silence for a while, before he said: "I like your brother."

Mai propped herself up on one elbow as best she could, given her limited space, and raised one sharp eyebrow at him. "You do?" Her tone was so off-handed it was almost accusing.

"Yeah. When he's not throwing tantrums or _biting_ your hand, he's a good kid." Zuko shrugged, and focused on a crease in her over-tunic. "I _think_ the tantrums are normal kid behaviour, anyway."

Mai sighed. "Why do you like him so much?"

"Why do you hate him so much?"

Mai sighed again. "Because he's perfect and everything gets handed to him on a silver platter, whereas I'm just the extra - and even though my mother doesn't care any more, she still has a lot to say if I'm not sitting up straight enough, or I have a hair out of place." Mai slumped in his arms. "She's got _big plans_ ," She imitated the high-pitched tone her mother used when talking to her little son, "for him, whereas I'll just have to make the best of it as a sort of apology to my parents for existing."

"You can be my Fire Lady," Zuko grinned at her, and, upon getting a smile in return, sobered. "But that's not his fault." He thought of the sweet little devil asleep upstairs and tried to imagine him sitting on his council. It was a strange image. He then set his mind to considering his girlfriend's words. "Don't let your feelings towards your parents cause you to write your brother off." And then, as a sudden thought occurred to him, "If they do have big plans, imagine the kind of pressure they'll put on him. Don't you think he'll need someone on his side?"

Mai yawned behind her hand. She was ready for sleep, but also fed up with having her socially awkward boyfriend preaching to her. "I'll think about it," she said, and Zuko realised he wasn't getting any more. Mai kept her promises, however, and he knew he'd get a return on his little pep talk, one way or the other. She sighed peacefully and wrapped her arms languidly around him, pulling him down for a kiss. One kiss became two, two became three, and the two suddenly realised that they felt wide awake.

"That was a tough evening," Mai whispered to him. "I think you deserve a little...reward."

"Really?" Zuko gripped her arms, looking her right in the eye. "Because I was thinking you need a reward, too."

"We can reward each other," Mai murmured against his lips, and as they continued to kiss, Zuko's thoughts drifted upstairs, and he wondered if her bedroom door was soundproof.

* * *

Akemi followed the guard down the dank, dark corridors, her hood drawn firmly over her dark head. A sense of trepidation rose in her throat like bile, and a jolt of pain shot through her stomach. She could hear prisoners ranting, screaming and plotting their escape. She had learned during her studies that people who had been imprisoned for a long time could often lose their grip on reality. She shuddered. It was a good thing she was coming to see Ozai sooner rather than later, then. She could only hope that a talk with the man himself would shed some light on his daughter's psyche.

"We're here, madame." The guard paused outside one cell, wrenching the door open. "Would you like me to wait outside?"

"Y-yes, please." Akemi tried and failed to keep the tremor out of her voice.

The guard gave her an understanding smile. "You're a brave woman. You've got a visitor!" he shouted inside the cell.

"Well, show him in," replied a voice that made the young woman's skin crawl. "No doubt he wants more information about his _mother_."

"You're up," the guard told her, and Akemi took a deep breath, lowered her hood, and strode in.

Ozai stared at his visitor: not the scarred boy he had expected, but a pretty young woman with black hair and dark brown eyes and a kind sort of face.

"Am I not good enough for my son any more?" he snapped. "Is he sending his servants now to get the information he wants - information he knows I don't have."

Akemi knelt down before his cell, wanting to look the man in the eye and desperately trying to keep the fear out of her own. His hair hung over his face, however, keeping him obscured from view. No doubt he felt himself to be too good for her. "I am not a palace servant. My name is Sato Akemi and I'm a psychiatrist at the Kitasaki Mental Facility. I've been assigned to your daughter, Princess Azula's, care."

"So you're here to talk about my daughter." Ozai's face did not change.

"Yes," Akemi said, and waited for him to begin. He did not. "How do you feel towards her?" she prompted.

Ozai shook his head. "She is useless. I should have put my faith in Zuko – he bent, she broke. But no – he was weak, and he has caved to the Avatar. The Fire Nation is now little more than a general shop for the rest of the world – a place to stock up on supplies. I hear the guards talk – taxes have gone down without the war effort, but everyone's concerned – when they hash out a settlement, we're going to have to pay millions in reparations, and I know my little good-for-nothing of a son will be too Agni-damned soft to stop them! I placed all my faith in Azula, and discarded Zuko – I should have kept all my cards on the table, or sired an heir with a second wife, since that shallow witch seemed only able to produce weaklings who couldn't adapt to force!"

"So you view your treatment of your children as a good thing?" There _was_ a tremor in Akemi's voice now. She had never met such calculated disregard for humanity – and for his own _children_. She silently vowed to apologise to her father for all the times she had called him cruel or heartless when he had denied her things she wanted.

"Definitely. Children are the key pawns in any plan you have for life. They are your tools; you must hone them as much as you can. I thought Zuko was the weak one, and cast him aside. I thought I was cutting away the canker that spoiled my family tree, but truly, I should have taught them both more strength, more courage, more adaptability."

"You don't seem to care about Azula at all, not on a personal level, at any rate." Shivers were running up and down Akemi's spine, and she tried to calm herself with a mental note that everything she had ever learned about a baby's attachment to their parents probably went out the window in this case.

"It's a pity she's in your mental facility," Ozai said, and Akemi sat bolt upright. Was this… _remorse_? All the same, he wasn't taking her cue – although, Akemi realised, there was no reason in the world why a former Fire Lord, evidently still lucid, would take cues from a twenty-four-year-old psychiatrist still half in training, from a middle-class family whose surname – shared with thousands of other families – meant nothing. "She could have been my key out of here. Once I'm out, I can call up anyone who remains loyal to our Great March of Civilisation and we can begin to undo the damage that that failure has already done, and I'll make him pay. That impertinent brat will regret defying me! Azula, I'll leave to rot. She is of no further use to me."

Akemi felt pity warm her heart, warring with the anger that turned her stomach. She wanted to run back to Azula and throw her arms around her, hug her tight and promise that the pain was at an end, that she'd never see Ozai and be treated like little more than a tool again. But she knew that she'd have to build up more trust with the girl before she was ready to be comforted.

But Ozai had more. "The Earth Kingdom would be no more. With the passing of Sozin's Comet, our plans to burn the entire kingdom to the ground are no longer practical. We will instead have to march on each village, starting with the west and then heading east, and if anyone tries to oppose us, they must simply be cut down. Of course, the Earth Kingdom will send troops to stop us, but we have better weapons, better tactics, better _breeding_. We are part of a better class, do not forget that, Miss Sato." Akemi jumped at the direct address, she had assumed he had simply been rambling to himself. She imagined troops knocking on doors and slicing open entire families, whole villages in flame, and Fire Nation soldiers – those fine men who protected her glorious nation and shared its greatness with those less fortunate, or so she had been taught in school – marching on, with never a thought for the humanitarian devastation they had left behind them. When Akemi had seen the new Fire Lord, with his earnest face and his speeches about rebuilding both property and trust between nations, she had liked him at once, and decided to give him a chance. Her love for human life and welfare, she realised, came very much into conflict with the idea of the Great March of Civilisation, and the former had immediately won out.

A cold sickness rose in her throat as she thought of all the innocent lives lost in one hundred years of pointless bloodshed, and the idea that this man, just the other side of the bars, could ever want to continue that, to keep killing until there was no-one left to kill, almost made her physically heave. It was taking all her willpower to continue this conversation.

It was then that Ozai looked _up_. The matted hair fell away from his face, giving Akemi her first good look. It was the golden eyes, _just_ too far apart, the coldness within, combined with the dead sort of look his whole face gave off. The last of Akemi's resolve fled, and she threw her dignity to the wind, scrambled to her feet, and ran. She heard his shouts of mirth as she tore down this corridor and that, the guard who had shown her in in tow, not stopping until she reached the door to the tower, and stood outside in the bright moonlight, and it wasn't until she was free to take in huge, gulping gasps of air that she realised that she had felt as though she were suffocating in that cell. She fell to her knees, and then slumped to the ground, the feeling of the soft, dewy grass beneath her cheek the her sole reminder that good things still existed in this world. She had been panting for a while when she felt the guard's hand on her shoulder.

"Are you alright, madame?"

Akemi turned round, looking up into the guard's concerned face. He was barely older than she was. "Yes. I suppose. I'm alright."

"Do you want me to escort you home? My shift finished half an hour ago."

"Oh, sorry for keeping you. Yes, thank you. I'm a bit shaken up."

"Then I'll give you some tea before you go. My name's Lee, by the way."

"Akemi." Akemi managed a weak smile, tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, and followed him inside. It had been a useful visit; she now had a pretty good picture of what Azula's childhood had been like, and she would consider the excursion a success if only she could get the sound of Ozai's laughter to stop clanging through her head.

* * *

 **So yeah, just a little chapter to keep you going, nothing major. Seriously, that was a fuck of a chapter that took me a fuck of a long time, I** ** _hope_** **you lot enjoyed it. (9,821 words for the curious, not including author's notes. My aim is 5,000 words per chapter.) The "Let's-Get-Tomohiro-the-Fuck-to-Bed" scene ran away with me somewhat. So, sorry once more for the indiscretion of the previous chapter, leave a review, leave a favourite, leave a fruit tart, and see you in the next chapter (which will hopefully be shorter).**


	4. Casting Off

**Hi again! I've begun this chapter straight away, as opposed to waiting a while like I did for the last one. Big thanks to vampireorvampyre for favouriting, to Guest for your lovely little piece of encouragement (are you the same "Guest" that left the last review?), and to DarkKing009 for doing both. In answer to your review, I did say at the beginning that I was ignoring the comics (but I will be taking a few ideas from them), although that was a while ago. What could I do to get the full 5/5? I am doing this for all you lovely people, after all! I don't have much else to say here, except for the fact that I** ** _still_** **don't own Avatar. Do you think if this story gets enough favourites Mike and Bryan will let me have a share? Either way, enjoy.**

* * *

It was early evening. The nights were drawing in as Autumn enveloped Kyoshi Island in its dull embrace, and all the candles had been lit. Suki was on a date with Sokka, as he would be leaving for the South Pole soon, and this left the other warriors, weary from a gruelling eight hours' training, to congregate in the biggest bedroom – shared by Fen, Xue, and Lia – around a bowl of assorted snacks, and make a pastime of having nothing to do.

For a few minutes, there was comfortable silence, the warriors all taking time to bask in the quiet and the laziness. Then, Niu decided it was time to strike up a conversation. "So, how are you liking it here, Ty Lee?"

"Liking it?" Ty Lee shot up from where she had been lying sprawled on her stomach across a pile of cushions. "I'm loving it! You guys are all so super-nice!"

"Aww," grinned Lia. "So, are we, like, your new best friends now?"

Ty Lee considered for a minute, her head on one side. "Yeah," she said finally. "Apart from Mai, of course!"

"That sucks," Ai sighed. "So, how long will it take for you to like us more than her?"

"Mai's the tall one, right?" asked Lia. Ty Lee nodded. "I hated her. She was such a bitch. I remember when you captured us and you were all nice while Suki was being interrogated, and she goes "Oh, stop making friends with the prisoners"! That's so mean!"

"Lia!" Lin prodded her sister in the side. "She was probably only following protocol. I mean, when _we_ capture intruders, are we all chatty and friendly about it?"

"I suppose not," Lia sighed. "Sorry, Ty Lee."

"How does someone as nice as you get involved with someone like that princess?" was Fen's attempt to subtly change the subject.

Ty Lee flushed slightly at the compliment. Although her life had been mostly happy, compliments had not been a huge part of it. "Well, I was seven. I'd just started at the Royal Fire Academy for Girls, and Azula was there too. She asked us all loads of questions, and she found out that I liked aura reading and acrobatics. She thought the acrobatics might be useful for fighting, and she invited me to come over to the palace. She said she wanted someone else to be our friend, but she didn't think anyone else in our year was good enough. Then she found Mai – she was in the year above – throwing knives at a tree, and she said she could come over too. It turned out she lived next door, which was really nice!" Then, warming to her tale, she continued. "Then, we met Zuko. He didn't talk much, but Mai went really red and wouldn't look at him, and he kept staring at her!" She giggled.

"And now they're a couple," sighed Lia dreamily.

"Yeah," grinned Ty Lee. "They're my favourite couple. They're so cute together, and their babies are going to be so adorable! I hope I get to babysit."

"You're thinking about their babies?" giggled Niu. "Have _they_ thought about their babies?"

"Have they even had sex?" demanded Lia, prompting another anguished cry from her sister.

"Oh, yes!" Ty Lee was truly giggling now. "You can tell by their auras! They are _so_ in love!"

"You know, this is actually getting kind of creepy," Lin decided to stop that particular line of conversation in its tracks. "What was it like being Princess Azula's minion?"

"Do you have any cool stories?" asked Ai.

"We were chasing the Avatar!" began Ty Lee. "And we had these amazing mongoose-dragons. They're really fast, and they can run on water! They say they never bite, and we have a phrase in the Fire Nation – if you're "bitten by a mongoose-dragon", it means that something really, _really_ unlucky has happened to you. Mai's mongoose-dragon bit her all the time, but mine was so super-nice and friendly. They mostly ate meat, but I could feed mine apples, for treats!" She gave a dreamy sigh. "I named her Kiku. I miss her so much." She looked downcast for a moment, but brightened up in short order. "We kept them on a tank train. That's what it was called. It was so awesome, but it was so _loud_. If we wanted to sleep, we had to stop and make camp, because the vibrations and the noise meant that we couldn't sleep on the train. Once, we ended up chasing the Avatar and his friends right through the night! It was so exciting! Azula said we had to be ready to get out at any minute! Mai was really tired, though. After we got thrown into the river by their big fluffy white thing–"

"Appa," interrupted Fen.

"Their sky bison," added Ai.

"Yeah, we got thrown into the river, which was _so_ not fun," Ty Lee picked her tale back up again, "I went back to the train, and Mai went to sleep under a tree! When Azula came back, we went to look for her, and Azula kicked her in the face, which was so mean! She had a bruise for _ages_!"

"In fairness, though, I think I'd probably go to sleep too!" laughed Niu.

"That's not funny, that's actually kind of depressing," Fen told her.

"Yeah, have you got anything to lighten the mood?" asked Lia.

"Anything a bit less life-threatening?" suggested Niu. "Some pranks you pulled on the guards or anything?"

Ty Lee thought for a minute. Then, she gasped and sat up straight. "I've got one!" she cried triumphantly. "One night, Mai and I were sleeping over at the palace, and Azula wanted to play Truth or Dare, because you _can't_ have a sleepover without Truth or Dare, and it started out with all the usual stuff – you know, Azula tried to get Mai to admit that she liked Zuko, and Mai wouldn't, she dared me to eat biscuits dissolved in miso soup, and they were _awful_! But then, Azula came up with this prank we could _both_ play on Zuko! Azula had these pellets made from this stuff that got really big real fast, and then the stuff spread to other things it touched and made them really big too, I didn't really get it, but she challenged Mai and me to go and put them in all Zuko's drawers." Ty Lee giggled. "And Mai was getting all jumpy in case he woke up, but we went anyway." Ty Lee's giggles got closer together as she reached the climax of her tale. "She kept looking over at Zuko while he was sleeping, like she couldn't get enough of him–"

"She could just have been checking that he was still asleep, though," interjected Fen.

Ty Lee sighed. "I suppose. But it's funnier to think that it's because she _liked_ him! Anyway, it was my job to put the pellets in and Mai's job to pour water on them – because that's what made them grow – and when we'd done the last one, I said "Let's go!", and Mai said "Shh, Ty Lee – he'll wake up!", and Zuko rolled over so that he faced towards us and said in his sleep "Mai? You look really pretty." And…and…" Ty Lee took a minute to finish giggling. The other warriors were giggling too, by now, and never had Ty Lee felt more in her element. "And Mai panicked and dropped her jug and just _ran_ , and then of course, I ran too, because I knew the crash would wake him up. So, we ran all the way back to Azula, and Mai was really red – and she went even redder when I told Azula what Zuko said – and we could hear Zuko yelling. He got so mad, and it was hilarious!" Ty Lee finished with a laugh, echoed by her friends. Then, she sobered. She elected not to mention that the self-same sleepover had ended with Azula daring her two "friends" to face their greatest fears – Mai's having been being locked in the dark. Azula had duly found a cupboard – and, after turning the key in the lock, had proceeded to forget about the older girl. She had been discovered several hours later by a suspicious Zuko, and had thrown herself, shivering, dirty, and sobbing, into his arms. Ursa had been summoned, and had arranged for the two girls to go home. That was the end of Truth or Dare.

Niu glanced at the candle. "Ooh – look at the time!" she cried. The other warriors looked. It was going on for half past eleven.

"Come on, let's get to bed." Ai stood up. "Suki should be back soon, and she'll want us refreshed and ready for tomorrow's training."

And with that, the gathering was at an end.

* * *

Akemi headed into work the next morning still feeling rather shaken. She wondered what she was going to say to Azula. She certainly wouldn't tell her that she had visited Ozai – what the man had said would surely only make his daughter worse. Every step seemed like an effort, and she kept her head firmly forward, concentrating only on the corridor in front of her – so much so, in fact, that she didn't hear Fukui calling her until he reached out and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Akemi." He said her name firmly, leading her into his office and gesturing for her to take a seat. "You don't look well."

"Oh." Akemi tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "I… I slept badly." This was true. She had tossed and turned almost all night, but she had not been able to stop Ozai's words rattling around her head. She wished she could have called for her mother. It had not been many months since she had moved out of her parents' house.

Fukui nodded, looking at her analytically. Akemi could tell that he knew she hadn't told him the whole truth. "You have a letter," he said eventually.

"A letter?" Akemi frowned. Who would send a letter to the Kitasaki Facility rather than to her home? If it had to do with Azula, Fukui would have read it first.

"Yes." Fukui was frowning too now. "It was dropped off in person by a young man named Lee. He said to check that you were alright."

"Lee!" Akemi sat up very straight.

"You know who I'm talking about?" Fukui leaned forward in his chair.

"Y…yes." It struck Akemi now that perhaps Fukui wouldn't approve of her little excursion.

"Then would you care to enlighten me?" Fukui was suspicious. Akemi had never come across a suspicious Fukui before.

"Oh, he's just someone I met last night."

"Last night?"

Akemi twisted her hands together. There could be no more avoiding it. "Yes. I…I went to see Ozai. Lee was the guard assigned to show me in and out."

"You did what?" Fukui stood up, towering over Akemi.

"It was properly cleared!" Akemi wished she could take that back. She had slipped into the defensive tone she took with her father.

"But why?" Fukui looked at her with complete incomprehension.

Akemi closed her eyes for a second. She wasn't sure how to phrase what she wanted to say. Eventually, she burst out: "Because I had to!"

"Why?" Fukui's tone did not change.

Akemi took a deep breath. "Because everyone, even people like Azula, deserve a second chance at life. It doesn't matter that she tried to kill people, it doesn't matter that she manipulated and abused her own friends, she is still a human being! What's more, she's a confused and vulnerable human being who needs our help to work out where her life is going and where she fits in the world! I will do anything it takes to help her make that journey, I will be with her every step of the way, even if it means sacrificing my own comfort and wellbeing! Looking after a mental patient isn't a job you can just clock in and out of, you have to dedicate your whole life to caring for this person! You have to understand," Akemi paused for breath, looking up at her employer almost pleadingly, "no-one in the world has ever cared for her before. Now I'm looking after her. I have to be there, because nobody else will. She's driven them all away. She needs us to help her break out of her vicious circle before it destroys what little is left. Please understand." She cast her eyes down, trying not to think about what might be whirring through Fukui's great mind.

"You've become very invested very quickly, Akemi," Fukui said quietly. The young woman looked up. Perhaps she could still escape with her job. "And for that, I thank you." He smiled at her, holding her eye for a second so that she could see that the twinkle in his own had not vanished. "I knew that you were the right person for Azula. I knew I needed someone new. When you work with mental patients for a long time, you become cynical. You see so many people who cannot be helped. Someone as bad as Azula needs someone like you – someone who won't give up, someone who is young and enthusiastic and caring enough to chip away at her shell until she breaks, and accepts our – your – help." Akemi smiled back. Her instructor had always been rather dismissive towards her due to her gender, and had never given off the impression that he thought any of his students were anything particularly special. One thing she loved about Fukui was that he always took time to point out his workers' qualities.

"So…I'm not fired?" Akemi felt very warm inside.

"I'd say being too committed to your job is hardly a firing offence, Miss Sato." Fukui smiled, rose to his feet and gestured for her to do the same. "In fact, it's workers like you that put the Kitasaki Facility at the head of its game. Just don't publicise your visit too much. I don't want people thinking that we're ordering our psychiatrists to go and talk to dangerous criminals as some twisted perk of the job." He fished in one of his desk drawers before handing her a scroll. "Your letter, Miss Sato. Now go. Azula will be waiting for you."

Akemi smiled wryly and left the office. But as she headed off to face her patient, she noticed that Lee's letter and Fukui's warm words had restored the usual spring in her step.

* * *

Suki wiped the sweat from her brow, flicked her fans open again, and charged once more at her boyfriend.

Sokka dodged nimbly, swung round, and aimed a blow at her head with his club, fully anticipating her duck. What he did not anticipate was the fan she jabbed him in the stomach with. She took advantage of his distraction to roundhouse kick him and throw him to the ground, throwing herself to her knees in order to attempt to pin him down, but he was waiting for her; as she reached for him, he reached for her, and managed to grab a fistful of her short hair and stuff her face into the mat.

"OW!" She glared at him, rubbing her painted nose, and used the other hand to detach his fist from her hair.

"Sorry," he began, but she gave him no time for that, and she managed to straddle him, Sokka bucking his hips and kicking his legs in an attempt to force her off. Just as he did, she reached for one of her discarded fans. Sokka, seeing that he had little time before his opponent regained a weapon, rolled back on top of her and wound up on his knees above her, his hands on her shoulders.

He smirked.

She smirked back.

She kneed him hard in the crotch.

"OW! SUKI!" Sokka winced, falling in a heap on top of her. "I'll need those parts in later life!"

"Serves you right for leaving such a vulnerable area open," Suki smiled, giving his wolf-tail an affectionate tug.

In return, Sokka kissed the end of her nose, then her mouth, before rolling off her and scrambling to his feet. Suki leapt up next to him, reaching out and wrapping her arms around him.

"Truce?" he ventured.

"Truce." Suki kissed him again and led him to the corner of the training hut, sitting him down and pouring him a glass of water from the jug they had brought with them when they first came to train.

Suki rested her head on his shoulder, squeezing his hand as his arm draped over her shoulder. "I love you," she smiled. "If nothing else, you're at least fun to beat up."

"I am most honoured, fair Lady Suki." Sokka gave the best bow he could sitting with his knees drawn up to his chest, and Suki giggled.

"And you have a great sense of humour." She giggled again and straightened up. "Can we take a break – you know, longer than it takes us to get our breath back?"

"Sure," Sokka replied. "Y'know, I've been thinking up some ideas for weapons. What about some kind of ballista?"

Suki thought for a minute. "Wouldn't that take up too much manpower?"

Sokka shrugged. "I suppose. Or I could figure out a mechanism to make something spin, so they could attach a blade to it – you know, something portable. Something you could run into battle with. Like some kind of steam-powered motor."

Suki had her head on one side. "Yeah. Maybe. Perhaps you could use it to make household stuff as well as weapons – since the war's over, people'll be needing those more."

"Yeah, I guess." Sokka thought. "A new way to tell the time that you don't have to check all the time to make sure it's working – I mean, if your candle goes out, you're stuck!"

"Some kind of transportation?" Suki suggested. "Not everyone can afford to keep an animal."

"A way we can communicate more quickly than letters, for when I head back to the South Pole!"

Suki's face fell. "I can't believe you're leaving in two days. The girls and I'll miss you."

"I'd better get inventing quickly, then!" Sokka grinned, and Suki laughed.

"Hmm, what else could you invent?" Suki put a finger to her chin. She eyed her fans. "Maybe something to help you imitate bending?"

"Gloves to help you warm your tea the way Firebenders do?" Sokka suggested.

"And how are you going to do that, smart guy?" Suki gave her boyfriend a playful nudge in the ribs.

Sokka shrugged. "I don't know – I haven't invented them yet!"

Suki laughed, but her boyfriend was still thinking. "Vibration!"

"What?"

"At the South Pole, there's this type of bird that vibrates when it gets too cold. When I was a baby, I used to be obsessed with it! My dad says I could get hours of fascination just from watching this one weird little bird. If we could figure out a way to make something vibrate, we could use it for baby toys."

"So babies the world over can copy your weird little obsession?" Sokka could see Suki's blush through her face paint, and he looked questioningly at her. She giggled awkwardly. "My mind went straight into the gutter, there."

Sokka frowned. Then, as comprehension dawned, he began to laugh, too. "I think that puts the hat on baby toys, then!"

Suki giggled again, letting her laughs peter out and resting her head once more on his shoulder. "You can test it out on our kids." Sokka looked at her in alarm. "The baby toys, you idiot!"

Sokka buried his face in his hands. "That was awkward."

"Yeah," Suki rose to her feet and held out a hand for her boyfriend. He took it, completely composed. "You can test the other thing out on me." Sokka snorted, then spiralled back into laughter. "Let's get back to training." She pulled him into a hug and kissed him. "Love you."

"Love you, too." Sokka grinned, then drew the sword that he and Suki had hunted for for days after their battle on the airships. "Now you're going down!"

* * *

If there was one thing Mai hated more than orange, it was babysitting duty. It was Michi's view that if Mai could be trusted to return home alone (if only she knew, Mai thought), she could be trusted to look after her younger brother, and had resumed the vibrant social life she had led before the family had gone out to Omashu, leaving behind Tomohiro's nurse, who was to resume work the following week. Thusly, the little boy had been left in the care of Big Sister as Ukano worked and Michi attended yet another tea party. Mai decided that it was best to simply count her blessings that she was not expected to attend alongside her.

She had invented a new game. Tomohiro ran in circles round the living room, squealing fit to burst, until he occasionally came to a stop, looking up at the girl expectantly. At this juncture, she would throw something of appropriate softness – a cushion, a balled-up throw, or, as an emergency measure, one of her endless pairs of black tights – at his head, and this would, for some reason, restore his energy so that he would begin his laps once more, still shrieking with delight. And all she had to do was loll back languidly on the sofa and read her book – the most shockingly inappropriate thing one could imagine, with equal amounts of bloodshed and sex – while her brother had the time of his life. It was foolproof.

Well, almost foolproof. Eventually, the little boy stopped running, idly threw away the tights she tossed at his head, and ambled over to the sofa, where he flopped down at her feet.

"I'm tired, Mai," he said, looking up at her with open mouth. He picked up a pair of tights and idly began rooting around inside it, perhaps in the hope that someone had stashed treasure in the foot. "What's this?" he asked, holding up a strip of black silk.

Mai did not allow herself to blush as she snatched her breast bindings from him. "Nothing." Tomohiro's bottom lip quivered, and Mai was poised to snap at him, but she remembered Zuko's words and pulled him onto the sofa with her instead. He was a little bundle of warmth against the flat plane of her stomach. She put a hand on him to add support to his precarious position. She didn't want to face the consequences of the little brat hurting himself, after all. She did, however, shut her book to give her brother her full attention.

"Is he coming?" Mai had a good idea who her brother meant.

"Zuko?"

"Zuzo?"

"The boy who read you a story?"

Tomohiro nodded vigorously. "I like him. I ask Mummy tonight if he can come again."

Mai shook her head. "Mother can't know he was here."

"Why not?"

"Because he's my boyfriend, and I'm not allowed a boyfriend. Mother thinks we work together."

"What's "boyfriend"?" Tomohiro's eyes were wide.

Mai considered. "It means that we like spending lots of time together, but it's not like friends. It's more than friends. I like him more than my friends." She paused. "It means I think he's special."

Tomohiro shook his head, an expression of disgust on his round face. "No boyfriend. Kissing. Ew."

Mai sighed. "Yeah, we kiss. We like kissing. That's what you _really_ mustn't tell Mother about."

"So it's our secret?"

Mai sighed, and rolled her eyes. "Yeah. I suppose it is." Having a "secret" together seemed to bring her closer to the boy, and a part of her resented that. But she supposed it was better than trying to kill each other as they got older.

"When will he come?" was Tomohiro's next question.

"I don't know, OK?" Mai was sick of his questioning and wanted to get back to her book. "He's got lots and lots of work to do, but he comes when he can. He might not come again until next week, or maybe not even then. Got that?"

Tomohiro nodded, his eyes filling with tears. He'd never understood why Big Sister didn't like him. Mai was unmoved. She picked up her book again and continued reading, only half-invested. The action in this book was good, but the smut was mediocre. She'd read much better. Tomohiro peered over her shoulder, but as he couldn't read, no damage was done.

"What's happening?"

Mai shut the book with a snap. "Grown-up things."

"Are you and Zuzo going to get married?"

"Maybe." Mai sighed sadly. She really didn't know when, or if, Zuko would be able to act on his promises of marriage.

"I want you to get married. I like you, and I like Zuzo. You like Zuzo. Zuzo likes you!" Tomohiro began to tug at her sleeve, and Mai sighed.

"Yeah. I like Zuko." The thought of her boyfriend made her smile, and this in turn made Tomohiro smile. It was a sweet little moment, and Mai felt her heart warming in spite of herself. "Maybe you're not so bad after all, Tomohiro." She wrinkled her nose. "Ugh. "Tomohiro"'s such an awkward name, and "Tom-Tom" sounds ridiculous. I'll call you "Tom". There's a name you can take to adulthood."

Tom smiled up at her in approval of his new name. "Tom!" he repeated excitedly. "Tom! Tom! Tom!" He bounced up and down on her stomach, and Mai winced and deposited him onto the floor in short order. "I play new game now!" The way he was looking at her suggested that he expected her to come up with one.

Mai cast an eye to the candle. They hadn't long before Michi returned. "OK, I've got one. It's called "Let's Clear Up All This Mess Before Mother Gets Back"."

Tom squealed once more and got to it. Mai picked up her book again. Foolproof.

* * *

"I see it!"

Appa let out one of his distinctive bellows as Aang leaned out and gestured excitedly to the tall, thin tower, by which, the letter had said, the village could be identified. It had been a key munitions producer during the war, but now its people were struggling to survive, and had called upon the Avatar to act as go-between for them and the Fire Lord, and to help them figure out a solution.

"Wow, look at that mountainside!" Katara had risen from her slumber, and was pointing at the lush green plane that formed a glorious backdrop to the little village.

"Yeah!" Aang grinned. "One thing I always loved about the Fire Nation was its incredible natural beauty."

A crowd of people had come out to meet them as they landed, and most of them were cheering. Children waved excitedly, women held up babies so that they could see the prestigious visitors, and some men even gave them the traditional flame-shaped bow.

"Wow!" murmured Aang, so that only his girlfriend could hear. "Look at all these people who came out to greet us!"

"Yeah!" Katara agreed as she hopped down from Appa's saddle. "I can't believe a year ago I was just some girl from the Southern Water Tribe. So much has changed."

Aang nodded his agreement. "A year ago, _I_ was still in a ball of ice – and now I'm dating you! Life's so much better now!"

Katara smiled at him, touched by his constant happiness around her, but the smile faded as she noticed that not everyone seemed to be overjoyed by their arrival. Several people in the crowd wore hostile expressions, and they seemed to bristle as the young Waterbender's eyes passed over them, as though readying themselves for a fight. She nudged her boyfriend to make sure he had seen them too, and his expression turned to one of worry as they slowly led Appa to where the village's main dignitaries waited by the village hall.

"Avatar Aang, Katara." The village elder bowed deeply, but when he straightened, his eyes were cold. "Welcome to the village of Mauntenpoto. I am Inoue, and we are honoured to have you here."

"It's nice to meet you to," smiled Aang. "What can we help you with?"

"We have organised a meeting for after dinner." There was something faintly patronising about Inoue's smile. "First, let us show you to your rooms. Children as young as yourselves must be tired."

"Actually, we've faced much worse than a long trip," snapped Katara. "We had to stay up all night once when we were being chased."

Inoue frowned, and Aang squeezed his girlfriend's hand. It was a calming influence. They followed the man to a bleak-looking three-storey building, grey stone rather than the sparkling white they had seen in the Capital, where he gestured them inside. A smiling old lady with crinkles by her twinkling eyes immediately took their small bags and led them upstairs.

"My husband is seeing to your bison," she told them. "Tonight, you're having a formal dinner at the village hall, but the other two nights of your stay, dinner is here – six until seven, but I'll bring you something if you're too busy or tired. By visiting, you're already doing great things for our village, Avatar. I'm Chinatsu, and my husband is Arata. We are honoured to serve you."

"Thank you for your hospitality." Aang made the traditional flame-shaped bow.

Their rooms were adjacent and identical. Pale red curtains fluttered at the windows, the wooden floors were brightened up with red rugs, and the sturdy-looking beds were made up with white sheets and a single red blanket. There was a washstand, dressing-table, and desk in each, and Katara's room had a vase of bright fire lilies on the bedside cabinet. They looked simple but cosy, and Aang was reminded of his old room back at the Southern Air Temple.

"These rooms are very nice," Katara smiled, entering hers and stretching out on the bed. Chinatsu placed her bag on the floor by her bed and left them to it.

They chatted idly until it was time to head out to dinner. Katara felt a heavy sense of foreboding as they left their rooms. It seemed almost as though the little inn was an island in a sea crawling with seal-sharks. Stepping out into the sunshine seemed like a huge leap of faith.

The cheering crowds were still there as they made their way through the streets. Aang was in his element, waving, grinning, hugging babies. It made Katara smile to see him so happy. She was getting her fair share of happy people too, and one little girl insisted on following them to the village hall, hand clasped in Katara's, her mother following behind to ensure no harm came to her little one.

At last, the (probably usually short) walk to the village hall ended, and the little girl was whisked away. Inoue waited for them, arms spread wide in welcome. Katara thought that he looked as though he wanted a hug, too. He had changed his robes, his new set glimmering dimly with faded grandeur.

"Avatar Aang, Miss Katara, we welcome you to our humble village hall." His voice was edged with the same condescending tone as earlier, and this time both of them detected a hint of sarcasm. Katara didn't have long to dwell on it, however. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw some of the aggressive people from earlier approaching them, seeming to emerge from the crowd as sap oozes from a trunk.

"Aang." For the second time that day, she nudged her boyfriend to ensure that he, too, had seen them. His grip on her hand tightened in assent. He began to wish that he hadn't left his staff in his room. That gesture of peace might have reduced his chances of defending himself. Katara still had her waterskin, though, so that was something.

They were starting to get uncomfortably close now.

Katara, as covertly as she could, opened her waterskin and bent some out.

Several of them were taking bending stances.

Inoue seemed oblivious to the threat. "Please, enter. Dinner is–"

The grenade at Aang's feet went off.

Several of the crowd screamed. Katara screamed with them. Aang had managed to leap several feet into the air, but he had not got out of the way in time, and he landed in a heap at his girlfriend's feet.

Katara knelt down instantly, bending her water around Aang's wounds. He was burned along his arm and his shoulder, and there were welts where he had been hit by debris. The fall had done nothing for him either, and she could feel some minor internal damage. As far as she could tell, as long as she continued to work at him, he should make a full recovery, but that didn't stop her shaking with fury.

"YOU!" She turned to Inoue as she worked, almost snarling at him. "You should have stopped this! You knew this was going to happen!"

Several townsfolk gasped. She could hear children crying. The little girl who had walked with them looked distraught.

"I assure you, I had no hand in this!" Inoue cried, but Katara was past listening to him now. She worked on in stony silence, and had healed two or three welts when a group of men bearing a stretcher arrived.

"I am a doctor." A man with a soothing sort of voice rested a hand on Katara's shoulder. "I'll take him to our village hospital. He needs rest and comfortable conditions."

"I have healing powers." Katara demonstrated by removing her hands from a patch of skin where there had previously been a particularly nasty wound.

"Then perhaps you are what he needs," the doctor replied. "But first, you need rest. His wounds will be no worse for a little wait, so long as they are dressed and bandaged properly."

Katara finally straightened up and allowed the men to pile Aang onto the stretcher. Chinatsu appeared in front of her.

"Come back to the room, sweetie," she said gently.

Katara wanted to rage and scream at her, too, but the saddened look in the old woman's eyes calmed her. She had had no part in this. Katara sighed and realised that there were tears streaming down her cheeks. She wiped them away as she watched the stretcher-bearers carry Aang out of her sight.

* * *

 **Well, that's a little more like it. 5,759 words. (No, I won't be including a word count for every chapter.) It still took me four months, though! I'll never get done at this rate! But hopefully the next one will be quicker off the bat. Also, this is officially the first chapter where I – and also the characters – have managed to refrain from dropping any F-bombs! Congratulations, me! Let's keep it that way, shall we? Anyway, leave a review, leave a favourite, leave a fruit tart, and I'll see you in the next chapter.**


	5. Partings and Gifts

**Hi again! Still here. It has actually been more than a year since I last updated, which is ridiculous, because I think about it every day. No wonder I haven't been getting much attention. What always happens is that I start the next chapter immediately after posting, then forget about it for months at a time. Anyway, enough. Thank you, Mogor, you were nice and quick off the bat. Ariolfo101, that is one of the nicest reviews I have ever received, thank you very much. You made my day. And so many people have favourited since I began work on this chapter! Special thanks to Alemara, Beefy8, Eramis8, JustAGirlsCuz2, Max the Hor, RocknRollZombie, winniepoohluv, and ariolfo101. You are such lovely people. Just a heads-up, this chapter does contain references to sex. I do not, as you will know by now, own Avatar. Enjoy.**

* * *

It was very quiet in the little healing hut, the blue glow of Katara's healing water virtually the only light. Aang's wounds were much depleted, but he was still weak and would need plenty of rest. Her tears had dried on her cheeks hours ago, but her face had lost a lot of colour, and her jaw was tight. The doctor, Fujiwara, looked on, ready to step in should Katara need assistance, but each movement of her hands was deft and sure, her hands pausing in their circular movements every once in a while to check his vital signs. Chinatsu and Arata sat there also, holding each other's hands, gazing at the young couple with concerned eyes. Katara had got over the urge to hit them for their apparent complacency.

The door opened, and Inoue entered almost sheepishly. Katara did not look up. He came and stood over the bed, looking down at Aang with something like concern painted over his severe features. Still Katara did not acknowledge him. It was only when he cleared his throat and addressed her directly that she finally raised her head.

"Miss Katara," he began. His voice had lost the smooth, almost patronising tone and had become papery and tense. He had guilt written all over him, and Katara's big blue eyes narrowed. "I wish to apologise for this regrettable – this _tragic_ accident, and I hope–"

" _Accident_?!" Katara did not make any indication that she was about to stop healing Aang, but Inoue recoiled nonetheless. "You organised this, didn't you?"

"N-no, I swear," Inoue held his hands up in a gesture that had clearly been intended as placatory but to Katara looked pathetically defensive. "It is terrible that a select group chose to act this way, but of course the village council in no way condones such–"

"You are lying!" Katara snapped. "I've seen much better liars than you and it doesn't take a trained detective to see that you were behind this!"

It was at this point that Aang began to stir. Katara immediately turned her attention back to her boyfriend and checked his vitals once more. He was going to live, she reassured herself. It was just a fall. Nothing she couldn't fix.

"Katara?" Aang sounded weak, as he had sounded many times before, and Katara felt the same urge to put her arms around him and just _protect_ him. "What happened?"

" _He_ got some guys to come and attack us, that's what!" Katara pointed an accusing finger at Inoue, and the man recoiled again. Fujiwara stepped forward, ready to intervene. This was a place of healing, and he would not have fights under his roof. Especially not with their village elder. Aang groaned, however, and his attention was called back to the young boy.

"I did nothing of the sort!" Inoue was cowering now, and he seemed to have shrunk. Katara suddenly looked a lot less like a little girl and a lot more like the hardened warrior that had defeated Princess Azula.

"You're lying!" Katara shouted again, and bent her healing water into a sharp, icy point, which she positioned close to Inoue's face.

"Don't hurt me, please!" Inoue sank to the floor, holding his hands up to shield himself.

The point followed him down. "Start. Talking." Katara's voice was low but clear.

"A man came to my home a few days ago!" he gasped. "He said that he'd heard Mauntenpoto had been in difficulties since the end of the war, and he could help us! Naturally, I was reluctant, but he offered me two hundred gold pieces! Two hundred – I know you've led a simple life, you should know how much you can buy for two hundred gold pieces, of course, I don't know if Water Tribe money is worth the same as Fire Nation money, but just think–"

"Stay on topic," Katara snapped.

"I agreed, and he told me that all I had to do was lure the Avatar to the village and attack him. He was only needed unconscious, then he could be delivered to my contact to be passed to his superiors!"

"So how many people are in on this?" demanded Katara.

"I don't know!" Inoue's voice was almost pleading. "I only know the man who paid me – and I didn't see his face, nor learn his name! He called himself the Red Raven."

"Did he tell you anything else?"

"Yes – one thing. They're aiming to eliminate the Avatar and the usurper – I mean, the _Fire Lord_ Zuko. They sent a man to kill him while he slept, but they haven't heard from him since, and the Fire Lord's fine. So they're sending someone else. You have to believe me, that's all I know!"

Katara's eyes widened. _We_ have _to warn Zuko_ , she thought. But right now – "We're leaving." She turned to Fujiwara. "I have to get Aang somewhere safe."

"He's in no state to travel, young lady," the doctor warned her, but Katara shook him off.

"I'm a healer. I can do what I need to on Appa." She turned to Chinatsu and Arata. "Thanks for your hospitality. But we need to get home."

"Of course, dear." Chinatsu looked a lot older now. "I'll help you get your things ready."

"Thanks." Katara managed a smile.

They set off on Appa an hour later. Aang was still weak, but fully conscious. Katara kept her head forwards and her face set. As soon as they were back home, she had to write to Zuko. As she urged Appa forwards, Aang peered over the back of the saddle to the village. The only light he could see shone from the village hall.

* * *

Mai sat curled up on the window seat, gazing despondently out at the grey sky. Her book sat unopened on her lap and the last dregs of her tea were cold. She was deep in thought, taking each idea, inspecting it closely, turning it over, before setting it aside and picking up the next one like an antiques collector inspecting pieces at an auction. Leaning her head against the cold, damp glass, she fixed her eyes on the palace – a different view from the drawing room than her bedroom – and allowed herself to smile as she thought of Zuko. She would visit him later. He deserved a break, today of all days.

A squeal cut through her reverie and she barely had time to register it before Tom crawled up into her lap. She removed him, but allowed him to sit on the window seat by her knees. He beamed up at her, and she allowed him a look. She had to consciously paint the curiosity onto her face.

"Mummy's coming!" he beamed. "She gave me new armadillo-bear!" He held up the toy triumphantly before clutching it adoringly to his chest. Mai couldn't help but feel that Zuko might as well have left Tom's previous favourite toy on top of the bookcase that night.

"Great." Mai sighed down at him. "Let's just hope she doesn't stay for long."

"She told me come tell you – she got _special news_!"

 _Probably that they're getting the Brown Sitting Room re-painted,_ Mai thought. When did anything ever happen in this house?

"But she said she talk to servant-lady about supper first," Tom continued.

"OK." Mai sat back and gazed once more out of the window.

"You went see Zuzo yesterday." Tom tugged at her sleeve, bringing her attention back to him. "I saw you come back this morning."

Mai blushed, inwardly hoping neither of her parents had seen her sneaking in through the back of the house with her clothing haphazard and her hair a mess after staying in bed _much_ later than she'd intended to. She had to admit, though, it had been a great start to the day.

"You going see him again today?" Tom's voice brought her back to reality.

"Yes," Mai smiled, eyes flicking briefly to the door to check for her mother. "It's important."

Tom nodded. "Can I come? I see palace again."

Mai rolled her eyes. "No, you can't come. We're going to spend the afternoon together. _Alone._ "

Tom's bottom lip pushed outwards and Mai sighed. Best to think about it in his terms, before he threw a tantrum and brought Mother running. "We're going to be doing lots and lots of _kissing_ ," she said slowly, watching it sink in and revulsion dawn on the boy's face. "Isn't that _disgusting_?"

Tom blinked at her once, then shook his round head violently. "I stay with Nursie."

Michi strode in just in time to see Mai give her little brother a satisfied smile and a single pat on the head.

"Oh!" she squealed, making both her children turn towards her sharply. "I'm so glad to see that you're finally getting over your jealousy towards your brother, Mai! A supportive older sister who quietly and subtly acknowledges her brother's superiority and accepts the loss of her position as the only child in the family will help give him the strength and sense of duty he needs to fulfil the expectations of him and rise to the top of the political hierarchy – without displacing his father, of course." It was only once she had added the afterthought that Mai realised that her mother had not breathed once during that speech. She also thought that Tom, who was currently trying to see if he could stuff his new armadillo-bear's head into his mouth, didn't look much like he was ready to fulfil anything.

"It is my duty to serve my family in any way I can," Mai replied, adding a little bow for effect. Her mother still missed the sarcasm.

"Excellent!" Michi beamed at her daughter, looking at her as though she had never seen her before. "I can see your closeness to the Fire Lord has made you think about your position in society and the tools it gives you to further your prospects." She gave a satisfied nod.

Mai didn't reply. Her mother's long-windedness usually meant bad news, of the sort that Michi found delightful.

Michi took her daughter's lack of response in stride and instead turned her attention to her son. "Come here, my little future-minister!" she cooed, lifting him from the window seat into her lap, sitting down on one of the numerous plush sofas that littered the room. Tom looked at her in complete incomprehension and Mai tried not to feel horrified. Michi's eyes flicked back up to her and she added, "And move into a more appropriate position, Mai – the Fire Lord won't like it if you sprawl out like some common peasant girl."

Mai swung her legs down and sat up straight, thinking almost wistfully about what _position_ the Fire Lord himself had manoeuvred her into that very morn– _No, Mai,_ she told herself very firmly. _Not in front of Mother._

"Tomohiro says you have some news," she said, to distract herself.

"Ah, yes." Michi's face lit up. "It's very happy news – my sisters are visiting!"

 _Shit!_ was the word that arced through Mai's mind like a lightning bolt. "How…delightful," she managed instead, before another thought occurred to her. "Is it just them or is it everyone?"

"It's everyone!" Michi beamed. "Won't it be lovely to have a nice, full house?"

Mai bit down a groan. "Everyone" meant her two aunts, their husbands, Aunt Satomi's four children, her eldest two cousins' spouses, and their collective offspring, which meant four children under the age of five. And they were _all_ unbearable. There was no way Mai was sticking around for that.

"Yes, Mother," she replied. "There is nothing in which I delight more than having small children running around the house breaking things and throwing tantrums."

Michi frowned. "Come on, Mai, you know Takehiko and Haruna have trained their children better than that. Besides, little Umiko's only a baby, she can't even speak yet."

 _All she can do is howl_ , Mai thought miserably. She didn't look forward to the arrival of her son as much as Zuko did, and when they did get around to starting a family, she would be very happy if he could grow up as quickly as possible. This was going to be a nightmare. "Is that all?" she asked. "I'll be at the palace this afternoon. It's important."

Michi perked up at once. "Does the Fire Lord have another task for you?"

"Yes," Mai replied, and then saw another window of opportunity. She let her face fall slightly, careful not to show too much disappointment lest she receive another lecture about "ladylike proportion". "Regrettably, it is likely I will be called to the palace for much of next week, and the week after, and thus will be unable to see much of my extended family."

"Never mind," Michi smiled. "We shall arrange afternoon tea, formal dinners, and the like for when you are here. Surely the Fire Lord will understand?"

 _Fuck!_ Mai couldn't help but feel a surge of irritation. Whatever she said, it seemed her mother was always one step ahead of her. "I will do my best to secure time away, however it is a…high-intensity task that will require my full attention for long periods at a time."

Michi arched one eyebrow, looking at her daughter appraisingly. "I hope he isn't tasking you with anything unladylike? Anything that contradicts what you have been taught about a woman's role and duty?"

 _Except for everything you've ever taught me about purity, no._ Mai laughed inwardly, but dared not show her amusement on her face. "Not at all. My task is to…" She cast about wildly, terrified of taking too long to come up with something, "take care of the more feminine aspects of his duties. He is entertaining a diplomat from…from the Nan-Ching Provinces…I believe he told me," She flinched inwardly, hoping she had successfully explained her pause. "It falls to me to play hostess to his wife."

"As he has not a wife himself." Michi gave a satisfied nod. Then, she frowned. "Although, I believe His Most Esteemed Lordship has reached sixteen years of age?"

"Yes, Mother." Mai was sick of this conversation. Her book called. The palace called. Zuko called, with his warm arms and sweet-smelling hair. Oh, this afternoon could not come soon enough.

"Then surely he should be at least seeking a wife. He is the last of the royal bloodline, he stands in desperate need of an heir."

"His…his duties take up much of his time and prevent him from actively seeking a bride." _Besides,_ Mai felt a stab of annoyance at the sudden flare of jealousy that had risen up inside her, _he's mine._

"Well, I'm sure an opportunity will come in time. A candidate may be presented to him without the need for an extensive search." She gave her daughter a meaningful look and Mai fought the urge to roll her eyes. "But about this diplomat's wife – perhaps you could bring her with you on your visits. We could help her get a taste of true society life in the Capital. The Nan-Ching Provinces are so…rural. So uncivilised."

Mai panicked. She took a second to calm herself before she replied, "I am certain she will enjoy time among the ladies of the Court. Perhaps she shall also wish for time alone. I doubt she will need to be brought along here."

"Well, then." Michi nodded again. "It is a pity that we shall not meet her. Well, enjoy your visit to the palace – make sure you drop in a good word for your father with His Most Esteemed Lordship. In you, we have a delightful opportunity. Be sure not to waste it. Goodbye."

"Goodbye, Mother." Mai relaxed once her mother had gone. She had an uneasy feeling that her lies would catch up with her sooner or later. She had already invented a diplomat's wife. How else would this imagined reality expand?

"You have big job?" Tom asked her from where Michi had put him down on the sofa.

"I don't have a job at all," Mai replied. "Zuko's really my boyfriend, remember? And you mustn't tell Mother."

"Ew, kissing." was Tom's only reply.

This time, Mai _did_ roll her eyes.

* * *

"You know we'll all miss you," Lia said as she tightened the drawstring of Sokka's final bag.

"You're the most exciting thing to happen in this village," Fen added from where she sat helpfully on Sokka and Suki's bed. "You tell the best jokes."

"Why, thank you, little Fen!" beamed Sokka, before ducking as one of his girlfriend's pillows was flung at his head.

"I won't miss that." Fen got up and began to pull Sokka's various bags into a pile at the foot of the bed.

"You need a trunk," Ty Lee said, cartwheeling over to help with the pile. A bag fell from the top, spilling its contents over the floor. Ty Lee did not seem noticeably distressed, but immediately began chasing the items that had rolled particularly far away.

"How's he going to pay for one?" asked Niu, beginning to re-fold Sokka's tunics and help him stuff them back into the bag. Exactly how he had done it the first time was unclear to her, as the bag seemed much too small to carry all five of Sokka's tunics, three pairs of trousers, his spare boomerang case, his sponge bag, and numerous other boxes of paraphernalia that he had seen fit to bring with him. "They cost a fair bit – probably more than two months' wages for us, especially one of the bigger ones."

"You guys get paid?" Sokka's head whipped up. "Even little Fen?"

"Not much," Niu shrugged. "But the food's got to come from somewhere. Oyaji pays us."

At that juncture, Lin opened the door, laden with small packages of food. "Got the stuff," she beamed, dropping it at Sokka's feet. "Have a pleasant journey home."

"OK, Lin, I think you just became my favourite Kyoshi Warrior," Sokka grinned up at her. "Besides Suki, of course."

"Should think so," Lin snorted. "She's gone to ask down at the port when your ship leaves." Her eyes automatically sought her twin, and she sighed when she saw that Lia had retreated to the bed with Fen. "You're helpful."

"He's done!" Lia gestured to the pile of bags as Niu determinedly shoved the contents of the re-packed one down further as she attempted to fit the remaining few pots and boxes inside. "Besides, I helped loads!"

"Why did you bring your _war paint_?" demanded Niu, shutting the lid of one of the pots and trying to stuff it down the side of the bag.

"In case I needed to properly display the manly manhood of the Southern Water Tribe in combat with you ladies." Sokka's tone implied that it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"That's enough about your manhood," Niu replied, drawing a snort from Ty Lee, Lia, and Fen. "Guess what – you didn't."

"But I had to be prepared." Sokka came over to kneel beside Niu and took the bag from her. "I'll do that. It fitted when I brought it here, I swear!" He inspected the contents and emptied the whole bag, stuffing the carefully-folded clothes in any which way. Niu sighed, rolled her eyes, and buried her face in her hands, and Ty Lee, by now lying on her front pulling her legs backwards over her head, was reminded once more of Mai.

A yelp from Xue as the door whacked her heralded the arrival of Suki, who beheld the scene of faintly organised chaos with an appraising eye, before fixing onto her boyfriend. "OK – they're still loading cargo up, so you won't be out of here until quarter past four. If you want them to put your bags in the hold, you should go as soon as you can."

"He's going on the fish ship?" asked Ai, from where she had been watching Ty Lee in vague fascination.

"How many other ships are there?" Suki demanded.

"But that'll only get him to Whale Tail Island!" Ai protested.

"And they have bigger ships there." Niu turned to sorting Sokka's food out. "Ai, we've got it covered. There are people going to the South Pole all the time there. Po the fish guy got it sorted out last Wednesday, he knows which ship he's on. So stop worrying."

"You should have kids," Ai told her. "You were born to be a mum."

Niu snorted.

When it came time for Sokka to board his ship, he was allowed a guard of honour. All eight of the Kyoshi Warriors insisted on leading him down to his ship, but although Fen thought it would be nice to have worn their uniforms, to show that he had such support from such an aged institution, they wore casual clothes. They still made an exciting procession, with Ty Lee leading the way, cartwheeling and backflipping and walking on her hands, Niu keeping a careful eye out to ensure she did not lead them astray, having only been to the harbour when arriving on Kyoshi Island and when greeting Sokka. Fen and Lia followed. They had argued that if they wanted a procession, they must have a banner, and so they had pressed a bright green bedsheet into service, waving it through the air and letting it flutter in the breeze like a bolt of emerald. Then came Sokka, surrounded by the other warriors, one arm around his girlfriend. He kept his distance from the bedsheet, watching it wave and play in the breeze. It was nice to be appreciated.

"This is what happens when we let our hair down," Suki sighed. "We're hardly ever off-duty, so they like to have a bit of fun when they can."

"I'll miss it," Sokka grinned. "I can't wait to see my dad again, but it's not as much fun as it is here – when you lot have time off, that is!"

"Which is never." Suki grimaced.

"So have fun now," Sokka beamed, and he swung her up onto his back and carried her the rest of the way to the harbour, her laughter and that of the other warriors ringing through the air.

He felt a lot less light as he prepared to board the ship. "I'll miss you girls," he said, turning to face them all.

"Aww, we'll miss you too!" Lia dashed forward for a hug, followed swiftly by Ty Lee, and then Fen, and then he was squashed in a press of all the warriors, trying desperately to hug them all and not get suffocated.

They all stepped aside to let him say goodbye to Suki, though.

"I'll miss you the most, Suks," he said, burying his face in her soft hair. She felt slender and warm in his arms. He wished he could take her with him to the South Pole. She needed to meet Gran-Gran, hopefully before the wedding.

"I'll miss you too," she sighed into his shoulder. She gave him a bracing smile and a kiss. "Love you."

"Love you too," he replied, giving her another squeeze. "I'll see you around."

He got onto the ship, waving cheerfully at the gaggle of girls, dressed in green and Kyoshi Island blue, who all waved back with varying degrees of enthusiasm. The ship set off and he kept waving as the party on the shore grew smaller. Fen and Lia began waving the sheet again and Lin tried to pull it away from them. Sokka grinned. The South Pole would always be his home, but he was growing ever more attached to Kyoshi Island.

He didn't go below deck until the green bedsheet was out of sight.

* * *

Toph bent the floor of her room up and back down again, catapulting her bag into her waiting hand. She was experienced enough now to calculate trajectory, but she still felt a glimmer of pride as she slung her bag over her shoulder and headed down to say goodbye to her host.

"I am glad that you have found a compass to guide your route," Iroh said to her as he saw her coming down the stairs. "You look happier, my young friend."

"Yeah, thanks for all the help, O Wise One." Toph gave him a punch in the arm.

"I assume you are headed for the train?" Iroh asked. Toph nodded. "They are arriving and leaving constantly, so there is no need for haste, but you do not strike me as the type for long goodbyes."

"Right in one," Toph replied. "See you around, Wrinkly."

Iroh laughed, his usual, booming roar, and he pressed a package into his young guest's hands.

"Tell me this isn't just eight months' worth of tea." Toph sounded extremely sceptical.

Iroh laughed again. "Not at all. I understand that you are tired of the stuff. It is merely your meals for the rest of the day."

Toph felt rather touched by the old man's care of her, but she wouldn't for anything admit that. Instead, she grinned at him. "Sweet. Well, catch ya later. Thanks for all the tea."

Without letting Iroh reply, she strode down the front steps of the Jasmine Dragon and out into the Autumn sunshine, heading for the train station. Seated alone and heading for the outside wall, she found a tingle of nervousness in her stomach. She had never experienced the outside world on her own, save for the underground Earth Rumble tournaments, and she had no idea what she would encounter. She felt rather exposed. She pushed it down, however, and opened up Iroh's package to distract herself.

He had included a package of peen tong. Toph grinned as her hands moved over the smooth, rectangular slabs. There was nothing like sweets to distract an agitated twelve-year-old, and nothing like ones made almost of pure sugar to ensure a good mood for the rest of the day. She bit into one piece, and grinned. This was going to be a good journey.

By the time the train arrived at the outer wall, almost half of the peen tong was gone. Toph sighed. She wouldn't be able to keep eating as she continued her journey. She shoved another stick into her mouth without bothering to break it up, and began to race along on two huge mounds of earth that slid along effortlessly under her feet.

By the time she neared Gaoling, she was not in such good shape. She had taken periodic breaks to shove more peen tong into her mouth, and now she had finished it all, and had lunch, and raced along the country at speeds most Earthbenders could only dream of, she was feeling beautifully sick.

Toph sat down by the road and buried her face in her hands. She took a gulp of the water Iroh had given her, and that made her head a little clearer and her stomach less like a choppy sea. She didn't want to cross the threshold of her parents' home feeling anything less than her usual self. She took a deep breath, and then another, waiting until the sickness passed.

Gaoling was close enough to walk. It was late afternoon and the Sun was just beginning its descent. Toph felt pleased with the time she had made. She might just explore the city to see what it had to offer before she saw her parents again.

Gaoling was huge. There were so many people of different shapes and sizes and gaits. Shops closed her in, and they must have had impressive window displays because people crowded round to gaze at them, moving from window to window in an almost leisurely fashion. Toph only counted a few who went in to actually buy anything. Carts rumbled along the streets, and she had to dodge out of the way of someone transporting a large cage of what sounded like hog-monkeys.

She wandered into the square, attracted by the sound of a clear, shouting voice rising up above the hubbub and chatter of the city. It was only when she got close that she could hear what he was saying.

"Get your tickets to Earth Rumble VII! Thrilling Earthbending and edge-of-your-seat commentary! Will the Blind Bandit successfully defend her title or will some other talent rise to claim victory?"

Toph's eyes narrowed as she drew her cloak further around herself. She didn't want to be recognised. You could bet your life the Blind Bandit _would_ hold onto the belt! She hadn't thought a bit about Earth Rumble while she'd been travelling with Aang, save when they'd run into the Boulder and the Hippo, but now she was transported back to the time when it was the only thing on her mind, the breath that gave her life, and she remembered it all: the earth flying past her face, her opponents' cries as they were knocked out of the ring, the roar of the crowd and the sweet taste of victory as she lifted the championship belt.

Her feet seemed to move of their own accord as she almost stumbled, spellbound, through the streets and into old, accustomed tunnels to Xin Fu's underground office. The familiar figure sat at a desk – certainly his least favourite part of the job – and she cleared her throat pointedly.

"It's you," he said coldly.

"Found someone to get you out of that box, then?" Toph grinned. She didn't care what Xin Fu thought of her. The paying public liked her too much.

Xin Fu almost grimaced at the thought of those many hours stuck in that horrific metal prison with Master Yu until a farmer had stumbled upon them and gone for help. He had not seen Master Yu since, and their captivity together had done nothing to make him want to find out what became of the man.

"Where's your money?" he demanded. "That pot doesn't pay for itself."

Toph slammed the coins down on his desk. "You can tell them the Blind Bandit will be extending her winning streak."

Xin Fu counted the money with the speed of a practiced mind. After barely a few seconds, he nodded. "Now get out of my sight."

Toph grinned as she strolled back along the corridors. Next stop, home.

* * *

"Aren't you going to take a break?"

Zuko looked up from his desk to meet his girlfriend's eyes in complete incomprehension. "Why?"

Mai raised an eyebrow. "To celebrate?" She narrowed her eyes. Was she going mad?

Zuko's good eye widened. What was he missing? There was something nagging at him. He missed having nothing to do sometimes; back then he had had so much less to remember. He wondered if he had managed to miss a meeting. That would have been fun to explain. But then Shinji, his Chancellor, would have told him. But Mai was talking about celebrating. There wasn't a festival on today – not that he could recall, anyway. "Celebrate what?" he asked. Then he panicked. "It's not your birthday, is it?" It had been three years since they had been together for Mai's birthday. He'd wanted to do something truly special, and he hadn't got her anything, or organised anything. It had been so hectic. His work had become his life, lists of councillors and islands and provinces and meeting notes and peace negotiations had become the wallpaper of his mind. "I thought you weren't sixteen for another month!"

"My birthday?" Laughter bubbled up inside Mai and she let it free. It was only Zuko. "Oh, no, Zuko, it's _yours_!"

" _My_ birthday?" Zuko stood up from his desk and went over to his girlfriend. He felt incredibly stupid. His mouth opened and closed, opened and closed until he found something to say. "You remembered," he said weakly.

Mai laughed again and brought out the package she held from behind her back. "Happy birthday."

Zuko took the present from her and gingerly tore the wrapping off. Mai had bought him a beautiful book of poems by a poet who had lived over three hundred years ago. He had had one of the poems, beautifully decorated, on his wall when he was a very young child, and the words were still carved across his mind. It had been his mother's favourite poem. Mai's smile when he met her eyes told him that she remembered. He took her into his arms and squeezed her tight. "Thank you," he smiled. Mai returned his hug and buried her face in his shoulder.

"Come on." She held her hand out to him. "Get changed, and we'll go for a picnic."

Zuko took her hand and followed. He still felt silly – who forgot their own birthday? – but he felt touched as well, and very relieved to be spending the afternoon with Mai instead of hunched over his desk.

Ten minutes later, the young couple were making their way through the Capital and towards the side of the volcano. Mai had thought ahead, and Zuko carried a picnic basket full of especially unhealthy treats. It was the largest picnic basket he had ever seen and the heaviest he had ever carried, and the blanket tucked under the handle kept falling out. Mai picked it up and threw it over her shoulder.

Zuko sighed when they reached the foot of the path up to their usual picnic spot. It was hardly a smooth path, and the thought of trying to scramble up the tricky bits with that picnic basket was – while not nearly as bad as the hardships he had endured over the past three years – rather disheartening.

Nonetheless, he heaved himself up. The picnic basket seemed to grow heavier and heavier and he wondered what exactly Mai had put in there. However, they reached the top eventually and his relieved grunt as he finally put the damned thing down drew a laugh from Mai. He loved her laugh – it was like a sunny day. If Mai was happy, surely nothing could be wrong.

He took the blanket from Mai and spread it out, inviting her to sit and plopping down next to her. She leaned into him immediately and he automatically wrapped an arm around her shoulders. They didn't open the picnic basket immediately. It was nice to just sit in silence, gazing out at the city below and enjoying having nothing to do. It felt like forever since Zuko had last had a break.

"It's so peaceful up here," Mai said eventually. "So nice."

"Yeah," Zuko agreed. "Like a different world."

"Happy birthday." Mai tucked her legs underneath her and put her arms around Zuko, trusting him to support her. "I'm sorry it didn't have the best start."

"It's been better than the last three." Zuko leaned down and returned her embrace, shifting until he knew she was comfortable. "I'm getting to spend it with you."

Mai smiled up at him from where she was cradled under the crook of his arm. "That's sweet."

He smiled back at her, feeling his heart swell. He loved her so much; he had known that ever since their reunion in Ba Sing Se. If only he could find the words to tell her. But every time he tried, his throat dried up and he froze in fear that she would reject him, push him away, decide she couldn't be in a relationship with someone so emotional and walk away. He knew these fears were irrational, deep down, but he still couldn't bring himself to face them. So he kissed her instead, deep and slow and tender, and he loved the way she wrapped her arms around his neck in order to draw herself closer. He pulled her tighter too, wishing he could somehow encase her whole body in his arms, keep her warm and safe and loved, living a blissful life with him as her protector, her provider. Sometimes he wished he could build an entire new world for her, where he could take full control of the circumstances around her, designing everything specially to meet her needs, her desires, her requests, where she would never have to see her parents again, nothing would be expected of her, and there was no danger, no want, only happiness and security. He wondered how it could all have changed so quickly: a year ago, these thoughts would have prompted him to vomit repeatedly over the side of his ship. He knew now, in the back of his mind, that they were a little ridiculous, and Mai might laugh at them if he voiced them, but these little moments of complete infatuation were so precious, he wanted to treasure every one of them before the spell wore off and they disappeared completely.

When they broke apart, Mai rested her forehead against his. "That was intense." She smiled up at him from under her lashes. They weren't long, but the effect was beautiful.

"I know." Zuko sighed almost apologetically. "I just want to look after you."

Mai smiled and pulled him in for another hug. She knew Zuko knew she could take care of herself, but it was nice to be spoiled a bit. At home, she had never felt that anyone truly cared for her, and that weighed constantly on Zuko's mind.

When she pulled away, she gazed into his eyes for a long moment, then took a deep breath. "I…" She trailed off, looking away. "I…"

"What?" Zuko asked almost breathlessly. He had a feeling he knew what she was about to say, and the thought that she felt the same way about him made his heart race.

"I…" Mai tried one last time to summon up the words and then sighed. "Forget it. I just like being with you. That's all."

So she couldn't say it either. In a strange way, it made him feel closer to her. They were just two emotionally-awkward teenagers, fumbling their way through a relationship. He smiled down at her as tenderly as he could. He wouldn't tell her he loved her until she was ready. He didn't want to pressure her to return the sentiment when she was still choked up by the reserve and stoicism her parents had forced into her as a child. He stroked her hair instead as they sat, gazing into each other's eyes. This was a perfect birthday.

"You know what," Mai said after a long silence. "I'm hungry."

Yes. The picnic basket. Zuko was excited to bust it open, to see what treats Mai had requested. Inside was a lunch fit for a god. There was a whole turkey-chicken – no wonder the basket had been so heavy – crisp and golden, Komodo sausages so fat they were almost circular, rolls that crunched in his hand as he inspected them, and tiny little mochi in every colour of the rainbow. It seemed as though the hamper was bottomless, and there was no knowing what would come out next.

"It's your birthday," Mai smiled as she began opening boxes of noodles and laying them on the picnic rug. "Why not go all out?"

He pulled her in for another kiss, this one much shorter as he could barely keep the grin off his face. "Thanks so much, Mai, it's great. My only worry now is how I'll top this when you turn sixteen."

She smiled back at him and began pouring tea for him. "You're the Fire Lord; no-one's birthday celebration should top yours."

"You deserve it, though," he said. "And I bet there are people all over the world who have invited all their friends and family to a massive party in their home, with a feast and music and dancing."

"You won't try that for me, will you?" Mai smiled.

"Of course not! I know you better than that!" He dug into a roll filled with yakisoba noodles. "This is good. Airi's really outdone herself."

"The servant nearly fainted when I told her everything I wanted," Mai smiled. "I warned her a week ago to make sure she could get all the ingredients she needed."

"Wow – you were so well-organised and I couldn't even remember it was my birthday."

Mai laughed. "It's OK. It's just lucky I was there to remind you." She delicately licked grease off each of her fingertips and Zuko smiled. Mai may have hated her rigorous training in ladylike behaviour, but he did have to admit it had paid off. She was the epitome of class. Even Azula, an Agni-damned _princess_ , hadn't come near her. He loved it.

"I guess we'll have lots more birthdays to celebrate together," he said, putting down his food.

"Dozens more," smiled Mai in return. "One day, we'll be celebrating your ninety-fifth with Taro and his children and maybe his children's children too, and I'll tell them all how you turned seventeen without even realising."

"It's all the work," he said apologetically. "All I can think about is getting to the bottom of the pile. Sometimes I don't even know what day of the week it is." Then he stopped and wrinkled his nose, for talking about his work had never been less appealing. Right now was celebration and good food and Mai's electrifying company. It was like she had lived her whole life a smouldering ember, and now she got brighter and brighter every day. He had to hear her speak again – what would she say next? "Tell me more about our married life," he laughed as she began fishing in the picnic basket again.

"Well, we'll wake up together every day, and I'll look at you over the breakfast table and all I'll say is "Did you sleep well, honey?". And you'll say "Yes I did, thank you." and we'll go back to eating our breakfast in silence, happy that we still share such a powerful connection. Middle-aged people are very boring. When we turn forty, we'll be interested in things like that, too." She smiled at him, showing she was joking. "Cake?" She finally managed to get a good grip on whatever she was reaching for and lifted out an impressive-looking cake cover, which she lifted to reveal a hulking mass of cake arrayed in strawberries, smothered in chocolate and dripping with cream. He grinned.

"Absolutely. Mai, you're the best." Then, cake in hand, he went back to thinking about the picture Mai had painted. "But "honey"?"

"Have you never read a book or seen a play?" Mai replied lightly, grabbing a runaway strawberry before it could escape the rug and be rendered inedible. "All married couples call each other "honey", _honey_."

Zuko knew she was only teasing, but a warm feeling spread through him at the sound of the endearment. It felt so intimate, so comfortable. He loved that he and Mai could be so familiar with each other, and the word sounded so good on Mai's tongue. It made him feel secure. It made him feel loved. "I liked when you called me "honey"," he said slightly nervously. "You should do it more." He fully expected a derisive snort, but her laugh sounded more amused.

"Whatever you say, honey." She leaned against him once more and stole a particularly tempting-looking strawberry from his slice of cake. He smiled at her. She could have the whole cake if she wanted. Actually, no. It was too good for that. He felt as though they had settled into a more comfortable atmosphere that afternoon. Mai could have whatever she wanted, but he needed his cake.

"Don't eat too much," she smiled. "We've got a big dinner this evening just for the two of us."

Zuko couldn't help grinning once more. He had a whole afternoon to spend overeating and joking around with his girlfriend. Maybe this was what being a normal teenager was like. It was bliss.

* * *

 **Finally! You cannot imagine how excited I am to post this chapter for you all – assuming this has any followers left after that long gap. Hopefully the next update will be just a little quicker. So anyway, leave a review, leave a favourite, leave a fruit tart, and see you in the next chapter.**


End file.
